| Show I 1 r I 1 MUSIC alusic A AS s am MEDICINE didd NT K I 1 INSTEAD OF TONING UP A SICK MAN HE MAY BE TUNED UP discussion of a Stu ort t that na ileen suggested by an eminent physician of st petersburg some tunes that would woula de be inappropriate for certain ills professor Tar chanow of st petersburg lectured recently on the influence of music on the human organism and affirmed that music is of the greatest service in the treatment of disease and that by the proper use of music ic the system can bo tuned like am a musical us ical instrument sufferers from nerve disorders can he be states be soothed by music but the remedy must be employed with discrimination as in some cases it produces an effect contrary ta that which is intended well opium will do that and so will many other drugs when they are not used with discrimination so that is no disparagement to the therapeutic virtue of music so if professor Tar chanow is right and he be is a scientific man the degree of musical doctor such as was vaa conferred on sir arthur sullivan is ia very mery likely to have a now new significance the subject opens up rath r a braai broad view where will a college for such musical doctors be located where can a man studying musical medicine learn the effect of some heroic remedy like the trombone without originating a scourge of nervous diseases it is possible however to build the college in the middle of some vast nu uninhabited inhabited tract where prof professors essom students and patients can literally wrestle with the problem there are of course only a certain number of musical instruments will a musical 1 doctor I ac tor use all of them in his practice will they malm make up his pharmacopoeia copo eia or will ho be become a specialist on one instrument a first violinist so aspea speak k in the grand orchestra of the profession fes sion if he be becomes a specialist ho must treat different diseases by administering different tunes times ala swan song from lohengrin would naturally have one effect upon a man in a fit to tra tora T ra ra boom do de ay another professor tar ch chanow attributes the tha frequent failure of music to cure diseases to ita being used at the wrong time and in nn 11 bo ble cases so of course the young musical practitioner will exercise the nicest ju judgment dament he can lay down some standard rules like W wagner agner in case of stupor or offenbach in melancholia but he will never dream of giving 1 I 1 awo ten dollars to ogrady OGra uy when an unfortunate has taken arsenic with suicidal intent or of prescribing the newest ballet music for a girl suffering with st vitus dance tho russian san saana expressed the conviction that a time will come when music in the hands of scientifically scientific scientifically all y trained physicians will be ba acknowledged to bo be an agent of great power for the relief of suffering it would be now if it were in the hands of scientifically trained physicians their training his has taught them to detect human suffering they can see eee a man wilco when his ear is shocked they can see him in tn squirm and twist sini smiling ling all the time whilo while some on ona 3 sings the last rosa of Surn summer out of tune they can caa in fact hear his teeth grato grate when his favorite favorit eair air is ia played false can the ordinary young person at the piano do that can the leader of the german band can the fellow with th the e hand organ how can music fail to relieve exclaims Tar chanow when a series of cases has proved that it is the tho most powerful regulator of mens moods and feelings which do dominate minato many sides of the psychical and physical life of th the organism A profane critic might suggest that musicians as a class do not ex es 1 amplify that perfect regulation of their emotions which might be expected the professor his has doubtless never seen two bandmasters band masters pulling each ot ethers outliers liers hair in a fight about the proper tempo of the dead march in saul it is even possible that he has never heard of rival prima donnas scratching and clawing but this failure to regulate the emotions of musicians may be ba the result of the tolerance begotten of overuse the same thing happens in the ine medicine dicine of the present day an am old morphia fiend can take enough of the drug to kill a dozen ordinary men then there are of course those stylians Sty rians who beginning to take arsenic when they are young are in in years able to eat it as some people do garlic however all this may be the sedative effect of music on patients in whom the tha instrument of mind is alike like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh is universally ver sally admitted canon harford an englishman lias has reported clinical experiments peri ments made by the st cecilia guild that show that it has a distinctly beneficial effect in certain cases of insomnia here too one bile would think tho the tune employed would have to be chosen with very nice judgment music doubtless will relieve pain not by acting on the nerve centers but by distracting the sufferers attention this is the true field for music as a therapeutic age agency cy and it is improbable that it ei e er ar can do more orpheus made trees and mountains dance to his hia lute into and the pied pipers music purged hamelin of ruts rats but it is very doubtful whether canon hartford will ever charm away a tumor or rid a lun lung of bacilli within limits ho however weTer musiu may be a most useful handmaiden to medicine and in ia this ige aga of nerves it might possibly le be made to play an important part in the prevention of the many diseases which are fostered if not actually engendered by depression and fatigue canon hartford and his colleagues may be oe encouraged to persevere in their efforts to pr press e ss tho the most spiritual of the fine orts arts into the service of suffering hum siuty new nev yort york world |
