Is Lead Exposure Still The Best Explanation For Beethoven’s Deafness?

Abstract

Objectives: An article in Current Biology in March 2023 suggested that lead poisoning does not apply to Beethoven because the Hiller lock was found to be inauthentic. In addition, bone samples that contained high levels of lead have also been discovered to be inauthentic. This communication is a response to this as well as other challenges to the article in The Laryngoscope in 2013 about lead and the hearing loss of Ludwig van Beethoven. Methods: An in-depth review of these articles was accomplished to assess whether lead poisoning is still a viable theory for Beethoven’s hearing loss. Results: A substantial review of over 2000 cases in 2016 showed uniformly abnormal auditory brainstem responses with chronic lead poisoning that correlate well with the shrunken cochlear nerves found at Beethoven’s autopsy. An article published in 2017 postulated a new reason for Paget’s Disease, but has serious deficiencies. The current case of lead poisoning in The Laryngoscope in 2020 supports lead as a cause significant hearing loss. In 2022 a suggestion of congenital syphilis was found to lack substantial evidence. Although the article in Current Biology in March 2023 suggested that lead poisoning does not apply to Beethoven because the Hiller lock was found to be inauthentic, no authentic samples have ever been tested for lead. Therefore, this is a premature opinion. Conclusion: Future directions listed in the Current Biology article include testing for exposure to environmental causes of disease. We will therefore wait with great anticipation to the analyses of authentic hair samples. It may not be surprising that these will also show high levels of lead. If they do not, all of the suggested reasons for Beethoven’s hearing loss will have major problems, and we may never fulfill his wish to discover the etiology of his loss.