Hair study reveals beethoven had lead poisoning(1)

　　Strands of hair clipped from ludwig wvon beethoven' s head in 1827 suggest lead poisoning caused the compos er years of chronic illness and may have contributed to his death, researchers reported on Tuesday.

　　A four-year studay of the hair found concentrations of lead more than 100 times the amount found in healthy human hair, said william walsh, chief scientist in nape rville, where eight strands of the musician's brown and gray hair were analyzed.

　　"every one of the samples we studied…had levels(of lead) far above the average," walsh told a news confere nce.

　　Beethoven , who died in 1827 at 57, saw a myriad of physicians insearch of a cure for his physical ailments , which began in his 20s. He suffered from severe abdom inal pain, depression and irritability, all of which ar e symptoms of lead poisoning, walsh said.

　　But the origin of the lead poisoning remains a myst ery.

　　"we don't know what the source of the lead contamin ation was for beethoven,"walsh said. "we do know that i t was far beyond what other people of that era had beca use his symptoms were so devastating and so striking. C ertainly not many others in the city of vienna had thos e symptoms, or it would have been reported."

　　The eight strands of hair were studied under two di fferent methods. Two strands were destroyed in order to determine their composition at mccrone research institu te in chicago, while the other six were examined using X-ray fluorescence intensity at argonne national labora tory in argonne, illionois, leaving them intact for fut ure analysis.