The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1892-09-24
MUSIC AS MEDICINE.
INSTEAD OF TOWING UP A SICK
MAN HE MAY BE TUNED UP"


Discussion of a Subject That Has Been
Suggested by an Eminent Physician of
ct. Petersburg-Some Tunes That Would
BE Inappropriate for Certain Ills.
Professor Tarchanow, Of St. Peters
burg, lectured recently on 'The Infu-
enee of Music on the Human Organism"
and affirmed that music is of the great
est service in the treatment of disease,
and that, by the proper use of music,
the system can be tuned" like musical
instrument. Sufferers from nerve dis
orders can, he states, be soothed by
music, but the remedy must be employed
with discrimination, as in some cases it
produces an effect contrary to 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 vir-
tue Of music. So if Professor Tarchanow
is right-and he is scientific mantle
degree of musical doctor, such as was
conferred on Sir Arthur Sullivan, is
very likely to have new significance
The subject opens up rather a broad
view.
Where will 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? 1t is possible, how
ever, to build the college in the middle
of some vast, uninhabited tract, where
professors, students and patients can
literally wrestle with the problem.
There are of course only certain
number of musical instruments. Will
musical doctor use all of them in his
practice, will they make up his pharma-
copoeia, or will he become specialist
on one instrument, first violinist, so to
speak, in the grand orchestra of the pro-
fession? IF he becomes specialist he
must treat different diseases by admin
lstering different tunes The swan song
from "Lohengrin" would naturally have
one effect upon man in a fit; clara
ra-boom-de-ay" another. Professor Tar
chanow attributes the frequent failure
of music to cure diseases to it's being
used at the wrong time and in unsuita-
BILE cases. So of course the young musi-
cal practitioner will exercise the incest
judgment. He can lay down some
standard rules like Wagner in case of
stupor," or "Offenbach in melancholia,"
but he will never dream of giving Il
Owe Ten Dollars to O'Grady," when an
unfortunate has taken arsenic with sui
cidal intent, or of prescribing the newest
ballet music for a girl suffering with st.
Vitus' dance
The Russian savant expressed the con-
viction that time will come when mu-
sic "in the hands of scientifically trained
physicians" will be acknowledged to be
an agent of great power for the relief of
suffering. 1t would be now if it We're
Tin the hands of scientifically trained
physicians. Their training has taught
them to detect human suffering. They
can see man vince when his ear is
shocked they can see him squirm and
twist-smiling all the tilne-while some
one sings The Last Rose of Summer"
out Of tune. They can in fact hear his
teeth CRATE when his favorite air is
played false. Can the ordinary young
person at the piano do that; can the
leader of the German band: can the fel-
low with the hand organ?
How can music fail to relieve" ex-
claims Tarchanow, "when a series of
cases has proved that it is the the most
powerful regulator Of mems moods and
feelings which dominate many sides of
the psychical and physical life of the
organism? a profane critic might sug
gest that musicians as a class do not ex-
emplify that perfect "regulation" C
their emotions which might be expected.
The professor has doubtless never seen
two bandmasters pulling each others
hair in fight about the proper tempo
Of the Dead March in Saul. 1t 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 the result Of the
tolerance begotten Of overuse. The same
thing happens in the medicine of the
present day An old morphia fend can
take enough of the drug to kill dozen
ordinary men. Then there are of course
those Styrians who, beginning to take az
senic when they are young, are 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
instrument of mind is ''like sweet bells
tangled out of tune and harsh" is uni
versally admitted Canon Hartford, an
Englishman, has reported clinical ex-
periments made by the St. Cecilia guild
that show that it has distinctly bene-
fetal effect in certain cases Of insomnia.
Here, too, one would think 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 agency, and it is improbable
that it ever can do more. Orpheus made