[msnimje]

I believe this. I have a lead pipe I use to "correct" my husband and it often makes him grumpy.

[RKB-AFG]

Interesting. I have always known that Ludwig van Beethoven was an obnoxious genius.

However, my favorite is still J.S. Bach.

[mtbopfuyn]

For the first time, said William Meredith of the Beethoven Center at San Jose State University, "we have actual scientific evidence about something that either caused Beethoven's death or contributed to it."

His heart stopped?

[IronJack]

Beethoven was famously irritable and suspicious, and had few friends.

Exceptions can be made for Genius.

[blam]

Beethoven Died From Lead Poisoning

[cloud8]

Perhaps. They say lead poisoning made the Roman emperors into psychopaths.

Increasing total deafness can make a musical genius incredibly grumpy.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

“Lead poisoning...”

Oh, hogwash. We all know it was DDT.

[reaganbooster]

The Beethoven bone fragment belongs to California businessman Paul Kaufman. Kaufman's great-great uncle was an Austrian doctor who kept fragments after Beethoven's body was exhumed. The bones were passed down through the generations to Kaufman.

It appears the Kaufman family has a bone fetish. I know this was a famous person, but who in their right mind would pass down bones to their descendents? I'm surprised there isn't a claimed Beethoven descendent suing them for grave desecration and mental anguish.(Sarcasm)

[sgtbono2002]

Well there you go: I never knew Beethoven ate paint chips.

[nicollo]

But what caused the lead poisoning remains a mystery.

The most likely explanation I've heard is that he did not suffer from greater exposure to lead than others of his day. It's that his body was unable to tolerate and process it, leading him to suffer it where others, similarly exposed, did not.

[GOP_1900AD]

I would imagine that most people of reasonable means had similar lead levels in those days. Pewter cups, fine well decorated homes, rudimentary plumbing, etc. All of meant exposure to lead.

[neverdem]

Live Longer With Evolution? Evidence May Lie in Fruit Flies

Researchers Decode Dog Genome

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

"His music was revered, but he was not revered," Walsh said.

He irritated many, many landlords in the city of Vienna. I know this, because I visited several of his apartments from whence he was kicked out for doing things like pouring water over his head to keep himself awake. Of course the water dripped down through the floor of his apartment to the space of the tenant(s) below him (the cheaper apts. in those pre-elevator days were always upstairs...).

[dfwgator]

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Most famous notes: The ominous "bom bom bom bommmm" that begins his Fifth Symphony.

Really!

[ez]

One of the composers, Schumann I believe, had injections of mercury into his hands, which they thought was a miracle cure. His tendons were damaged from a sling-like contraption he invented that held certain fingers motionless above the keys while he practised with others.

He was likewise poisoned.