POX: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis

Excerpt from Beethoven Chapter

On 1 December 1994 a small black locket in a dark wood oval frame containing a coil of Ludwig van Beethoven’s brown, gray, and white hair (582 strands) pressed between two pieces of glass was sold at auction at Sotheby’s for $7,300. The enthusiastic new owners were Alfredo “Che” Guevera, a Nogales, Arizona urologist and Ira Brilliant of the Ira F. Brilliant Beethoven Center. Assuming that they were hoping to prove that Beethoven had syphilis or was poisoned by finding traces of mercury and arsenic, The New York Times Magazine found the story of the new owners’ plan to test the hair sample worthy of a cover story, “Beethoven’s Hair Tells All.”

The Times published my fanciful letter to the editor: “Will Beethoven’s hair ‘tell all’—or nothing? Mercury was used to block hats in the nineteenth century—hence the phrase ‘Mad Hatter’—and arsenic was used to treat syphilis as early as 1498. If Beethoven’s hair does contain mercury or arsenic, will it indicate that he had syphilis? That he was poisoned? Or just that he may have worn a hat!” More to the point: since mercury grows out with the hair, a deathbed sample would be of no use in determining treatment during youth. When the carefully guarded secret of the hair test results was finally revealed with great fanfare by Russell Martin in Beethoven’s Hair, a charming book alternating stories of Beethoven’s life with the picaresque saga of the hair sample, the mercury question was left ambiguous with this unfathomable logic-twister: “Beethoven’s hair had evidenced levels of mercury so low they were undetectable.”

Guevara and Brilliant, who showed reverence toward their relic and seriousness about their science, had not enjoyed being called syphilis-obsessed by the nation’s leading newspaper, according to Martin, and so they were pleased at what they did find: lead, and no small quantity—60 parts per million. Lead poisoning, which the author speculated came from dishes, or wine plumbed (sealed) with lead, could have caused many of Beethoven’s complaints, including his deafness. The popular media picked up the story and soon newspapers, radio, and television proclaimed the startling news: Ludwig van Beethoven did not have syphilis after all. But the syphilis question does not go away that easily.

Beethoven could have had lead poisoning and syphilis.