User:Zingarese/Franz Schubert's health

Franz Schubert (31 January 1797 - 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer who is ranked among the greatest composers of the 19th century. Schubert’s physical and mental health conditions, and the circumstances leading to his early death at age 31, continue to be discussed. Although the cause of death was formally diagnosed as typhoid fever, theories stating that the composer died from the tertiary stage of syphilis have been proposed. Schubert also suffered from symptoms that matched those of mercury poisoning; mercury was, at the time, a common treatment for syphilis.

Background
Schubert was born on 31 January 1797, the twelfth of fourteen children. Of these fourteen children, nine died in infancy. Schubert’s mother died in 1812 when he was fifteen.