Unravelling the mystery of Mozart’s death

A professor from UCL has attempted to unravel the 200-year-old mystery surrounding the premature death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The great composer was at the height of his creative powers in the months before his death in Vienna in 1791. Over the years a host of theories have emerged to account for his demise at the age of just 35 - including murder by a rival and suicide. The list of proposed natural causes includes rheumatic fever, an overdose of mercury salts used to treat syphilis, and even an underheated pork chop. But Professor Andrew Steptoe from UCL's research department of Epidemiology and Public Health has arrived at a different hypothesis. Professor Steptoe and fellow researchers Richard Zegers and Andreas Weigl examined the daily registry of deaths in Vienna covering the time at which Mozart died. 'We have for the first time analysed the causes of death that were prevalent over the period during which he died,' said Professor Steptoe.
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