Doctor Curmudgeon® Did Pushkin Start It?

By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman, is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

In my ongoing attempts to avoid current events, I occasionally listen to the music of Mozart.

Even with my mind occupied by glorious music, dark thoughts continue to intrude. Amadeus Mozart’s death at the age of thirty five has remained shrouded in mystery.

The circumstances of the musician’s demise are cloudy due to rumors which began about six years after the death of Antonio Salieri, the good friend and mentor of Mozart.

With his death at such an early age, gossip began to simmer about the circumstances. Mozart died in 1791. In 1832, the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin published a short verse play called, Mozart and Salieri, in which he dramatized the death of Mozart as poisoning by Salieri.

Antonio Salieri was no slouch in his own right. He was a well-known Italian composer who was the teacher of many great musicians such as: Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven. Salieri was famous for his skill as a composer and a music and vocal coach. So, why on earth, would he risk being remembered for murdering a brilliant musician, rather than for his own considerable skills?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was never portrayed as a robust man. He has been described as being very thin and pale in appearance with a pitted complexion due to a childhood bout with smallpox.

So much speculation.

So few facts.

From the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:

“Throughout his life Mozart suffered frequent attacks of tonsillitis. In 1784 he developed post-streptococcal Schönlein-Henoch syndrome which caused chronic glomerular nephritis and chronic renal failure. His fatal illness was due to Schönlein-Henoch purpura, with death from cerebral haemorrhage and bronchopneumonia. Venesection(s) may have contributed to his death.”

Indeed, it is most likely that the young composer died of a streptococcal infection which lead to kidney failure.

But, like many good writers, Alexander Pushkin could not resist a nice, juicy plot. And so he wrote his play about the final days of Mozart’s life and had Amadeus Mozart drinking wine poisoned by Salieri.

From reports at the time of his death, it appears that Mozart had swollen extremities, face and abdomen. He had some kind of a rash and complained of pain all over his body.

The Annals of Internal Medicine has collected information of deaths around the time of Mozart’s passing. A great increase in deaths of young people occurred with similar symptoms to Mozart’s.

Quite unlikely that Antonio Salieri could have poisoned them all!

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.

Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.

SERMO www.sermo.com “talk real world medicine”
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