CHOPIN’S HEART, PICKLED IN A JAR, OFFERS CLUES TO HIS DEATH

By ANNALISA QUINN

The heart of Frederic Chopin, pickled in a jar of alcohol and then encased in a stone pillar in Holy Cross Church in Warsaw, shows the Polish composer died from complications of tuberculosis, according to an early version of an article published by the American Journal of Medicine.

Frederic Chopin in 1849, the year of his death. Research in The American Journal of Medicine suggests that the composer died from complications of tuberculosis. Credit Bettmann Archive, via CorbisPhoto

According to the article, which is to be published in its final form in February under the title “A Closer Look at Frederic Chopin’s Cause of Death,” the researchers found Chopin’s heart “submerged in an amber-brown liquid,” thought to be Cognac, which was often used for tissue preservation.

The researchers did not open the jar, but they could see that Chopin’s heart was “massively enlarged and floppy,” they wrote in the article. It was also covered in a white substance that gave it a “frosted” appearance, leading the researchers to conclude that Chopin had suffered from pericarditis, an inflammation of tissue around the heart that was likely the result of tuberculosis. Previous theories held that he may have died from cystic fibrosis.

The heart has a long and contentious history. Chopin, who died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39, dreaded being buried alive, and asked that his body be cut open before burial and his heart sent to Warsaw. Accordingly, his heart was cut out, sealed in a crystal jar and smuggled past the Russian authorities into what is now Poland.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/arts/chopin-heart-tuberculosis.html