Mozart's Last Months and Controversial Death

Abstract

The controversies about the cause of Mozart's death are related to the unusual nature of his symptoms as recounted by lay people, the absence of a medical record, the inordinate amount of publicity given over to the sensational poisoning allegations, and the substantial difficulty in the evaluation of the diverse original sources^1–20. The controversies are especially concerned with the question of preexisting chronic illness and the interpretation of the swellings. A chronology of major events in the last few months of Mozart's life is given in Table 1.