Posted on 08/18/2009 11:38:16 AM PDT by JoeProBono
A new European study says it wasn't bad pork chops or a jealous rival:
There have been a lot of theories about what killed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at age 35, said Doug Stanglin in USA Today. Was it kidney failure? Undercooked pork chops? Poisoning? But a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests the composer may have died from a simple case of strep throat.
This will come as good news to fans of Mozart's "jealous rival, Italian composer Antonio Salieri," said Sue Michaels in Chattahbox. Salieri, after all, is the one rumored to have poisoned Mozart back in 1791. Mozart’s death certificate offered little in the way of medical clues, other than to say that he died of severe fever and rash. Maybe that's why the conspiracy theories lasted so long.
Even now the European researchers behind this study say to take their findings with a grain of salt, said Jacob Goldstein in The Wall Street Journal. The fact that Mozart suffered from fever, swelling, and rash doesn't point to any specific disease, so the authors of the study looked at community-wide outbreaks of disease at the time to see which "might fit with the great man’s death." Strep throat seemed a better fit than scarlet fever -- but there's still room for debate.
His wife’s horrible housekeeping...?
My guess is that he had what many people had back then, a glomerulonephritis secondary to a strep throat.
Fever and rash sounds like Scarlet Fever.
Amadeus Amadeus?
Rock and Roll.
I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.
Which I’m pretty sure is a result of strep.
Eat me I’m a danish.
He’s DEAD? OH DANG!
I’m sticking with the F. Murray Abraham theory.
Gee, if I write up a theory and then tell my readers to take my findings with a grain of salt, can I get published in the Wall Street Journal too?
Good thing we have real journalists around. Otherwise all of those bloggers would swamp the news with hearsay and fantasies.
Planet of the Apes: The Musical?
Maybe the same people who killed Michael Jackson and OJ’s wife used a time machine and went back to kill Mozart. (sarcasm)
An early version of ObamaCare....
"Mr Mozart, I realize you're still writing a concerto, but you've already written a HUGE volume of works and frankly, no one will get around to performing them. That illness is likely going to be fatal anyhow. So, just throwing this out there, mind you... so instead of being a burden to us all, making us clap to some rather hellacious tunes, buy medicines and powdered wigs and extravagant clothes and pile up bill after bill after bill, why don't you..."
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