what killed mozart

The cause of Mozarts death is still a topic of debate, and there are several theories. One early rumor was that Mozart had been poisoned by his colleague Antonio Salieri, but this has been proved untrue because the symptoms displayed by Mozart's illness did not indicate poisoning. Mozart had health problems throughout his life, suffering from smallpox, tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, typhoid fever, rheumatism, and gum disease. Whether these played any role in his demise cannot be determined. Some theories suggest that Mozart died as a result of his hypochondriasis and his predilection for taking patent medicines containing antimony. In his final days, this was compounded by further prescriptions of antimony to relieve the fever he clearly had. Mozart's personal physician, Thomas Franz Closset, concluded that the composer died of hitziges Frieselfieber, or acute miliary fever. Another theory suggests that Mozart died of chronic kidney disease and ultimately of uremia. A new study suggests that the actual cause of death may have been a strep infection. However, the exact cause of Mozart's death remains unknown, and the topic is still a subject of speculation and debate.