[Possibilities and limits of retrospective diagnoses. Pathobiografical notes on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's diseases (1756-1791)]

(Die Pathographie Wolfgang Amadé Mozarts Möglichkeiten und Probleme einer retrospektiven Diagnostik.)

Full Abstract

On December 5th, 1791, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart died from an acute febrile disease which had been accompanied by painful tumefactions around his hands and feet. The official diagnosis 'hitziges Frieselfieber' (severe military fever) cannot be decoded or translated into modern medical terms. Hypotheses which assert either a wilful or an erroneous poisoning with mercuric chloride have not been corroborated. Innumerable diverging retrospective diagnoses have been made by physicians during the 19th and 20th centuries. In this essay, we give a pathobiografical description of Mozart's three severe diseases from which he suffered as a boy:
When traveling through Europe with his parents and his sister to give many exhausting concerts Wolfgang Amadé fell ill with an Erythema nodosum (1762), an abdominal typhus (1765), and with smallpox (1767). With regard to the 24 years between 1767 and 1791, however, we don't have much evidence for the suspicion that Mozart has had severe acute or chronic diseases as a grown-up. He may have been physically robust, but mentally he was rather sensitive. In his letters, Mozart sometimes portrayed a temporary bad state of health in order to illustrate his inconvenient emotional and/or financial situation. Up to November 18, 1791, Mozart's creativity was unbroken. His death came unexpectedly after an illness of 15 days.

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Author information

Author/s: Bauer, Axel W (AW);

Affiliation: Fachgebiet Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin, Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim der Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 327, 69120 Heidelberg. awb(-atsign-)uni-hd.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Biography; English Abstract; Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: Würzburger medizinhistorische Mitteilungen / im Auftrage der Würzburger medizinhistorischen Gesellschaft und in Verbindung mit dem Institut für Geschichte der Medizin der Universität Würzburg (Wurzbg Medizinhist Mitt), published in Germany. (Language: ger)

Reference: 2006-; vol 25 (issue ) : pp 153-73

Dates: Created 2007/03/05; Completed 2007/04/03;

PMID: 17333861, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Male
Music - history
Pathology, Clinical
Smallpox - history
Typhus, Epidemic Louse-Borne - history

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