"which malady afflicted beethoven and profoundly affected his work as a composer? "

Beethoven went deaf, the malady that afflicted him was deafness.

Generally spontaneous human combustion is something that still bewilders some, human combustion happens very rarely and doesn't affect the surrounding areas, so unless you want to set your self on fire, human combustion will remain spontaneous and very rare.

Answerminuet;