What Killed Mozart?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on Dec 5, 1791, but the mystery of his death has lived on. The New York Times reports that over the years, Mozart's death has been attributed to syphilis, poison, the effects of treatment with salts of mercury, rheumatic fever, renal failure, infection from bloodletting, and trichinosis. Now, according to researchers writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Mozart may have died of something much more banal: a strep infection. The researchers examined accounts of Mozart's symptoms—swelling of tissue under the skin, malaise, back pain, and a rash—and cross-referenced them with common causes of death in 18th century Vienna, concluding that strep was the likely cause.