(Pork Photo: Getty)
What killed Mozart at just 35? A recent theory points the finger at one of his favorite foods—pork cutlets.
According to Dr. Jan Hirschmann, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, Mozart's death could have been due to trichinosis, a disease caused by consuming undercooked meat infested with the larvae of the trichinella parasite.
Hirschmann cited Mozart’s correspondence as a potential clue. 44 days prior to his illness, Mozart wrote his wife Constanza: "What do I smell? . . . Pork cutlets! Che Gusto [What a delicious taste]. I eat to your health." The incubation period for trichinosis can be as long as 50 days, and the symptoms of trichinosis match up with accounts of Mozart’s symptoms of fever, rash, limb pain, and swelling.
Mozart passed away 15 days after he became ill. At the time, doctors diagnosed it vaguely as "severe military fever." Theories seeking to explain Mozart’s untimely death have abounded, including Cosima’s (unsubstantiated) belief that he was poisoned by Salieri or another of his rivals. As a commoner, Mozart was interred in a common grave that was dug up every 10 years and reused, and his remains were scattered. Without any physical evidence, the circumstances of his death remain a mystery.