Self-study
Historian: We can learn about the medical history of individuals through chemical analysis of their hair. ██ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ████ █████ ████████ █████████████ ████████ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███████████ █████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ █ ████████ ████████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ████ █ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that if we find mercury in Beethoven’s hair, we can conclude that venereal disease caused Beethoven’s deafness.
Why?
Because mercury was commonly taken in Beethoven’s time to treat venereal disease.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the mercury in Beethoven’s hair, if found, could only be due to ingestion for the purpose of treating venereal disease. This overlooks the possibility that Beethoven might have taken mercury for a different reason.
16.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ████████
a
None of the ███████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ██ ███████████
Not necessary, because even if some mercury could be eliminated, that doesn’t change the fact that IF we find mercury in Beethoven’s hair, we might be able to draw conclusions from it. The author never suggested that we will find mercury or that we will find all of the mercury that was ever in Beethoven’s body.
b
Some people in ███████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████
Necessary, because if were not true — if EVERYONE in Beethoven’s time DID ingest mercury — then the presence of mercury in Beethoven’s body wouldn’t signify any connection to venereal disease.
c
Mercury is an █████████ █████████ ███ ████████ ████████
Not necessary, because mercury can be indicative of the fact one needed treatment for venereal disease even if it wasn’t effective treatment. People could have taken mercury thinking it was effective, regardless of whether it actually was.
d
Mercury poisoning can █████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████
Not necessary, because the hypothesis at issue is whether venereal disease caused Beethoven’s deafness. The author never suggests that the mercury itself caused deafness.
e
Beethoven suffered from █████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████ ██ █████████
Not necessary, because the argument isn’t based on any comparison of psychological problems between Beethoven and Newton. It’s not even clear Beethoven had psychological problems.