Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-04-12
MANIACS AND MUSIC.
Novel Effects Of Sweet Sounds.

The third of series of highly inter-
esting experiments was tried few days
| ago, upon the lunatics on BlackWelFs
and Wards Islands. The discovery was
made by Pouza, of Turin, that he could
| influence the most refractory cases of
lunacy by violet light. 1t has. however.
been reserved to America to demonstrates
that the raving maniac can be effected
by music.
Mr.. ]. n. Pattison, the celebrated plan.
ist, accompanied by DR.. NJ. A. Wilson
and Thomas Brennan, paid
visit to the lunatic asylums on Wards
and BlackwelPs Islands and made a Sc
ries of experiments which were of a char
acter both to astonish and instruct those
in charge of the insane.
At BlackwelPs Island the doctor pro-
duced, for the purpose of experiment, the
very worst cases of acute mania in the
establishment. The first woman subject
ed to the experiment was Sharp-fea-
tured, little individual, who perpetualIv
muttered between her closed teeth. Mr..
Pattison began playing the introduction
to the LichnOwsky Sonata of Beethoven.
The effect was Immediately perceptible.
The woman who had previously been
ASPS III q ollctle95AG-JdChCl, bllllGuf anu
began to talk in the key in which the
musician was playing. Areporter of the
Star, who was present, seeing the influ-
ence produced, asked the performer to
change the key. The result was that the
tone of the maniac fell into the domi-
nant key IN which the performer was
playing.
Not satisfied with these first results,
and doubtful whether it might not be by
chance that this curious effect was pro-
duced upon the patient, the newspaper
man asked the performer to play "Han-
dePs Fugue" in E minor. The woman
talked in the key in which he was play
ing, although she seemed perfectly insen-
sible to other influence. The key was
changed six or seven times with the
same uniform result.
What is perhaps more extraordinary
than the foregoing is that the pulsation
of cataleptoid patients was influenced, in
a marked degree, by the varied strains
of the player. A pulse of 120 was re-
duced within two minutes to "a. A
temperature of 80 was lowered in three
minutes to Y. A raving woman, notori-
GUS as fighter of her nurses, was COM
pletely subdued, and sat crying while
the strains OF ''Home, Sweet Home"
were played for her.
Another dangerous lunatic, German
woman, was appealed to in the strains
of Kuchen's "Wdun die ScIidlUlbeT helm
SCGrf ziehdn." She Immediately began TO
cry.
The "Wdch am RIein" was next played
for her, upon which she became per-
fectly furious, danced, gesticulated,
swore, and used the most violent Ian
guage. Perhaps the most extraordinary
experiment of all was that tried upon
cataleptoid patient, who had lost the
power of locomotion. He was placed in
the middle of the floor, was unable to
walk, and was propelled rather rudely
by one of the nurses. The strains of the
celebrated Es Zogen drei Burschen 1CObI
Uber den Rhein," reached his ear, and he
Immediately began to dance to its time.
He was restrained by the doctor and his
assistants, and the air was changed to
the "Wanderer" The effect was magi-
cal. He became Immediately quiet and
tractable, and behaved like the most
rational man in the place.
A woman, who was listening to the
"Wanderer," got up and exclaimed:
"How beautiful, my God, how beautifulP'
sat down and relapsed into her previous
state of apathy.
These are among the first experiments
that have been made upon the insane by
music. 1t is due to Mr.. J. n. Pattison,
the celebrated pianist, that they have
been inaugurated. Every possible aid
has been rendered him by Commissioner
Thomas Brennan. 1t is not too much to
say that the heart of the latter gentle
man is really IN the work. He said to
the writer: off it was only possible to
substitute music for the 'straight-jacket,'
and for every kind of restraint, should
be the happiest man in the world. The
sight of so much misery as have to see
every day almost breaks my heart, and
l am only too glad to have an oppOrtu-
nifty of trying whether it is not possible,
in some way or other, to mitigate these
fearful sufferings of humanity without
a resort to the force which we have been
hitherto obliged to use. If we can do so,
we shall be benefactors to our kind, and
we shall be amply repaid for any trouble
that our investigations have given u.s."