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In a review of testimonials, medical records,
biographies and correspondences, one American researcher has
found evidence that trichinosis
-- an illness he would have
contracted from eating undercooked pork -- is the
most likely cause of Mozart's demise.
There are no remains of Mozart, so no
theory can be fully proved or disproved...but this explanation
would answer all the issues brought forth by the features
of his death as they have been described
In describing the artist's passing at
the age of 35 in 1791, the author notes that Mozart's
body was never autopsied and his
remains were lost 7 years later when his grave
was dug up for reuse. Complicating matters is the fact that
prior to his death, Mozart was convinced that he was being
poisoned -- although he never identified a perpetrator.
The author offers as damning evidence
an innocuous little letter Mozart wrote to his wife 44
days before his illness began, as documented in
a 1999 biography.
"What do I smell? ... pork
cutlets! Che Gusto (What a delicious taste). I
eat to your health," Mozart wrote.
If his final illness was indeed trichinosis,
whose incubation period is up to 50
days, Mozart may have unwittingly disclosed the
precise cause of his death - those very pork chops.
Mozart died 15 days after he became ill.
His doctors offered only a vague cause of death - severe miliary
fever" - and no autopsy was performed.
Compatriots pointed a finger at rival
contemporary composer Antonio Salieri as a possible plotter
-- a suggestion that Hirschmann dismisses as lacking in motive
and substance.
The researcher also contradicts the notion
that Mozart accidentally overmedicated himself with mercury
for the treatment of syphilis. He further contends that Mozart's
high energy level and output up until the last few months
of his life argue against the idea that he suffered from some
drawn-out chronic illness.
It is when the author ponders trichinosis
that he establishes what he believes to be the most satisfying
theory of Mozart's death. The infection, which usually occurs
when people eat parasite-contaminated
pork, produces symptoms strikingly similar to what
is known about the composer's illness.
Not yet clinically identified in Mozart's
time, the infection would typically kill a patient within
2 to 3 weeks. After isolating written evidence that Mozart
did eat pork -- as late as 44 days prior to his death -- Hirschmann
concludes that the extreme swelling, vomiting, fever, rashes
and severe pain the artist experienced are all best explained
by trichinosis.
Archives
of Internal Medicine June
11, 2001;161:1381-1389
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