There are some articles on the web that suggest Mozart may have had Syphilis, although no references for these allegations have been supplied. There is some evidence he was a virgin until his marriage to Constance Weber. In the book "Mozart and the Enlightenment," by Nicholas Till, a quote from a letter, Amadeus wrote to his father Leopold (circa 1781, shortly before his wedding) lends credence to his virginity and serves to dispute the Syphilis conjectures.
“I simply cannot live like most young men do in these days. In the first place, I have too much religion; in the second place I have too high a feeling of honor to seduce an innocent girl; and in the third place, I have too much horror and disgust, too much dread and fear of diseases and too much care for my health to fool around with whores.”
These conjectures are likely rooted in the similarity the symptoms of syphilis have to smallpox. Syphilis, formerly known in English as the "pox" or "red plague" the term "smallpox" was first used in Britain in the 15th century to distinguish it from the "great pox" or syphilis.
Mozart survived smallpox when he was eleven with only minor scarring from its defacing pustules.
It has also been hypothesized he died from self-inflicted mercury poisoning to cure this phantom ailment used to treat this disfiguring disease. It is much more likely he died from Rheumatic Fever, as this article argues.
Additionally. to accept the proposition Mozart had Syphilis, given Constance was almost continually pregnant during their marriage having given birth to seven children, it must follow she would have contracted it from her husband. Given that she was over eighty when she died, the Syphilis allegations are not only utterly ridiculous but sadly a demeaning mischaracterization of this divinely inspired genius.
