200 years later: Strands of Beethoven's hair reveal medical and family secrets

Фото: Wikimedia Commons

DNA analysis of Beethoven's hair has revealed a previously unknown secret almost 200 years after his death.

Almost two centuries after Beethoven's death, a team of scientists decided to use genetic analysis of his hair samples to find out what was the real cause of his hearing loss and health problems. What they discovered, however, was completely unexpected, he writes "Science alert" (Science alert).

The famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven died on a stormy Monday in March 1827, bedridden since Christmas the previous year, after a long illness. Beethoven was suffering from jaundice, his limbs and stomach were swollen and every breath was a struggle.

After his death, a will was discovered that Beethoven had written a quarter of a century earlier, in which he begged his brothers to make details of his condition public. So it's no secret today that one of the greatest musicians the world has ever had was functionally deaf in his mid-40s. It was a tragic irony that Beethoven wanted the world to understand, not only from a personal but also from a medical perspective.

Almost two centuries after Beethoven's death, a team of scientists decided to fulfill his wish by genetic analysis of DNA in authentic samples of his hair.

"Our primary goal was to shed light on Beethoven's health problems, known as progressive hearing loss, beginning in his mid-to-late 20s and eventually leading to him becoming functionally deaf by 1818," said biochemist Johannes Krause of the German Max Planck Institute.

The root cause of Beethoven's hearing loss was never known, not even by his personal physician Dr. Johann Adam Schmidt. What began as tinnitus (ringing in the ears) in his 20s slowly gave way to a reduced tolerance for loud sounds and eventually a loss of hearing in the higher pitches, ending his performing career.

In the aforementioned found letter addressed to his brothers, Beethoven admitted that he was hopelessly depressed, to the point of considering suicide. But Beethoven didn't just deal with hearing loss. From the age of 22, he reportedly suffered from severe stomach pains and chronic bouts of diarrhea (diarrhoea). Six years before his death, the first signs of liver disease appeared, a disease believed to be at least partially responsible for his death at the relatively young age of 56.

A 2007 forensic examination of a strand believed to be Beethoven's hair found that lead poisoning may have hastened his death, even responsible for the symptoms that took his life. Given the culture of drinking from lead vessels and the medical treatments of the time that involved the use of lead, this is not a surprising conclusion.

The team began by analyzing a total of eight hair samples from public and private collections across the UK, Europe and the US. During their authentication work, they discovered that two strands did not come from Beethoven at all, while another was too damaged for analysis.

The latest study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, however, reveals that the analyzed strand of hair in question is not Beethoven's at all, but an unknown woman's.

Previous work suggesting that Beethoven had lead poisoning was found to be based on a hair sample that did not belong to him – but that sample belonged to a woman.
But five of the samples came from the same European man and matched his German ancestry. In April 1826, Beethoven personally delivered one of the locks to the pianist Anton Halm, saying "Das sind meine Haare!" ("That's my hair!").

More importantly, the few strands confirmed to likely belong to Beethoven indicate that his death was likely the result of a hepatitis B infection, exacerbated by his drinking and numerous risk factors for liver disease.

"We have not been able to find a definitive cause for Beethoven's deafness or gastrointestinal problems," Krause said.

In a way, we are still left with questions about the life and death of the studied composer. Where did he get hepatitis? How has a lock of women's hair been woven through the ages as if it were Beethoven's? And what exactly is the cause of his gut pains and hearing loss?

Because the team was inspired by Beethoven's desire for the world to understand his hearing loss, the result of the scientific research still did not give the desired result, but buried in Beethoven's genes was another surprise.

Further research comparing the Y chromosome in the hair samples with those of contemporary relatives descended from Beethoven's paternal line shows a discrepancy. It seems that in the generations before the composer's birth extramarital activities took place.

The discovery points to an out-of-wedlock paternity event in his paternal line, between Hendrik van Beethoven's conception in Campenhout, Belgium, around 1572 and Ludwig van Beethoven's conception seven generations later in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, said Tristan Begg, a biological anthropologist. at the British University of Cambridge.

In the end, such a turn of events would be unexpected even for the late famous German composer himself, given the aforementioned request he left in a letter to his brothers.

Dear reader,

Our access to web content is free, because we believe in equality in information, regardless of whether someone can pay or not. Therefore, in order to continue our work, we ask for the support of our community of readers by financially supporting the Free Press. Become a member of Sloboden Pechat to help the facilities that will enable us to deliver long-term and quality information and TOGETHER let's ensure a free and independent voice that will ALWAYS BE ON THE PEOPLE'S SIDE.

SUPPORT A FREE PRESS.
WITH AN INITIAL AMOUNT OF 60 DENARS

Video of the day