Back to the main page.Johann Schobert (c. 1720-67), his entire family except for one child, a servant and a friend, all died from eating poisonous toadstools mistaking them for mushrooms. This would not have happened to John Cage who won a prize in Italy competing against professional mycologists.
Felix Senius (1868-1913), a heldentenor, died from ptomaine poisoning after a banquet given in his honour at Königsberg in 1913,
as did John Philip Sousa, after a banquet in his honour.
Alexander Scriabin developed an abscess on his lip leading to blood poisoning. He died after a few days illness.
And a possible further case:
In 1798 Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) was taken seriously ill in Naples. The following year, he was imprisoned for a number of days, having taken part in the Neapolitan demonstration on the arrival of the French army in that city. After travelling to Venice to work on a new opera, death suddenly overtook him. There were rumours of poisoning on the order of Queen Caroline of Naples, on the grounds that he was a dangerous revolutionary. Subsequently, the Pope’s personal physician, Piccioli, was sent to examine Cimarosa’s corpse. Piccioli’s sworn statement was death from a gangrenous abdominal tumour.