Arizona republican., 1892-12-28
MUSIC AS MEDICINE.
INSTEAD OF TOWING UP A SICK MAN HE MAY BE TUNED UP"

suggested by an Eminent Physician oI
 st. .Pctersburg-Some Tunes That Would
 Be Inappropriate for Certain Ills.
 Professor Tarchanow, of St. Peters. I urg. lectured recently on "The Infiu. Cseo of Music on the Human Organism, ,rl affirmed that music is of the great. ,,t service in the treatment of disease. and that, by the proper use of music, inc system can be tuned" like musical instrument. Sufferers from nerve dis. & ,-lers can, he states, be soothed bv music, but the remedy must be employed with discrimination, as in some cases it woluces an effect contrary to that which Is intended.
 j We'll, opium will do that, and so will many other drugs when they are not < ,psed with discrimination, so that is % odisparagement to the therapeutic vir- reof music. Soif Professor Tarchanow T srght-and he is a scientific man-the degree of musical doctor, such as was pnlerred on Sir Arthur Sullivan, is yPry likely to have new significance. Tha subject opens mp rather a broad view.
 Where will college for such musical . doctors be located? Where can man ,.liying musical medicine learn the gFect of some heroic remedy, like the trombone, without originating a scourge Of nervous diseases? It is possible, how ever, to build Ge college in the middle I Of some vast, uninhabited tract, where \ professors, students and patients can literally wrestle with the problem.
 There are of course only a certain number of musical instruments. Will ,musical doctor use all of them in his yzctice will they make up his pharma- ,opPia, or will he become specialist Il ,1 one instrument, first violinist, so to geak, in the grand orchestra of the pro- iessiOu; If he becomes a specialist he must treat different diseases by admin Nering different tunes. The swan song ,rom "LOhengrin" would naturally have re effect upon man in a fit: Tara n.bOom-de-ay" another. Professor Tar :baHow attributes the frequent failure h music to cure diseases to its being cei at the wrong time and in unsuita- De cases. So of course the young musi- 5 al practitioner will exercise the incest 4 judgment. He can lay down some aaHiard rules like Wagner in case of 4 t1por, or "Offenbach in melancholia," .li be will never dream of giving "l ! Owe Ten Dollars to O'Grady," when an nioTtunate has taken arsenic with sui sial intent, or of prescribing the newest alet music for girl suffering with S.. Titus dance.
 The Russian savant expressed the con Hction that time will come when mu- ,. "in the hands of scientifically trained X 1ysicians" will be acknowledged to be II agent of great power for the relief of Easring. It would be now if it were n the hands of scientifically trained 8 aysicians. Their training has taught hem to detect human suffering. They za see a man wince when his ear is aocsed they can see him squirm and vs,-Smiling all the time-while some Ns sings The Last Rose of Summer" 1ioi tune. They can in fact hear his 7s,h grate when his favorite air is \ played false. Can the ordinary young X lsrsJn at the piano do that; can the ialsr of the German band; can the fel- low with the hand organ?
 How can music fail to relieve" ex- M nf ases has proved that it is the the most H pwertul regulator of mems moods and H,lngs which dominate many sides of \ le lepychical and physical life of the % rsanismY A profane critic might sug- X !Si that musicians as a class do not ex- Gpity that perfect regulation" of q ls,r emotions which might be expected. Toe professor has doubtless never seen To bandmasters pulling each others aalr in a fight about the proper tempo the Dead March in Saul. It is even & Fssl5ls that he has never heard of rival 4 irla donnas scratching and clawing 6l, this failure to regulate the emotions inlsicians may be the result of the Isrance begotten of overuse. The same -ng happens in the medicine of the resent day An old morphia fiend can 2is enough of the drug to kill dozen fllnary men. Then there are of course -9se Styrians who, beginning to take ar rllc when they are young, are i'll years o.e to eat it as some people do garlic.
 However all this may be, the sedative 1sct of music on patients in whom the 2rnment of mind is like sweet bells Ased out of tune and harsh" is uni .dsaIly admitted. Canon Hartford, an lgAshman, has reported clinical ex- fnnents made by the St. Cecilia guild la' show that it has a distinctly bene- :al effect in certain cases of insomnia. 2s'e, too, one would think the tune lpoyed would have to be chosen with 'Siy nice judgment
 Music doubtless will relieve pain, by acting on the nerve centers, but hstracting the sufferers attention. ,as is the true field for music as a ~'apeutic agency, and it is improbable ~a' t ever can do more. Orpheus made | ''s' and mountains dance to his lute, S' the Pied Piper's music purged ~44eIln of rats. but it is very doubtful ,~s,her Canon Hartford will ever