The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-10-03
MUSIC AS MEDICINE.
INSTEAD OF TOWING UP A SICK
MAN HE MAY BE TUNED UP"

ouBScsted ny OH LibIucHL IN -
st. PetersBurg-some Tunes That WouIs
BE Inappropriate for Certain Ills.
Professor TarchanOw, of st. Peters
burg, lectured recently on "The Infiu
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 a musical
instrument. Sufferers from nerve dis
orders can. he states, be sOOthed by
music, but the remedy must be employed
with discrimination, as III 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 T~archanOw
is Tight-and he is u scientific MANTLE
degree Of musical doctor. such as was
conferred on Sir Arthur Sullivan, is
very likely to have a new significance.
The subject opens up rather a broad
view.
Where will Il college for such musical
doctors be located? Where can d 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 a certain
number Of musical instruments. Viii
a musical doctor use all of them in his
practice, will they make up his pharma-
C0pUria, Or Will he become a specialist
on one instrument, a first violinist, so to
speak, in the grand orchestra of the pro-
feSslon: If he becomes a specialist he
must treat different diseases by admin
lstering different tunes. The swan O
from "LOhengrin' would naturally have
one effect upon a man i'll a fit; TIARA |
ra-DoOm-de-ay" another. Professor Tar
chanoW attributes the frequent failure
of music to cure diseases to its being
used at the wrong time and in unsuita- |
bic cases. So Of course the young must
cal practitioner will exercise the incest
J''p 'i'iib L Cdl lay uOWu 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
cldal intent, or Of prescribing the newest
ballet music for a girl suffering with St.
Vitus' dance.
me ItuSslan Savant expressed the con-
Vg'iOn that ii time will come when mu-
Air lin the hands of scientifically trained
ph. sicians will be acknowledged to be
an agent OF great power for the relief of
suffering. 1t would be now if it were
''ln the hands Of scientifically trained
physicians Their training has taught
them to detect human suffering. They
IAN see Il man vince when his ear is
'hOcked; they a see him squirm and
,wlst-smiling all the time-while some
)ne sings Tho Last Rose of Summer"
)ut OF tune. They can in fact hear his !
.eeth CRATE when his favOrite air is
played false. Can the ordinary young I
person Mt the piano do that; can the
eader OF the German band; can the fell :
with tie hand organ:
10 can music fail to relieve" ex-
'lalInS I~archanOw, when a series of
asses has proved that it is the the most 1
powerful regulator Of mems moods and
ceilings which dominate many sides of
he pSychlcal and physical life of the
'rganism! y prUfLne critic might sug- {
that musicians as IL class do not eX- /
mpiliy that perfect regulation" of
heir emotions which might be expected.
he professor has doubtless never seen 9
bandmasterS pulling each others t
ar III 4 fight about the proper tempo
I The Dead March in Saul. 1t is even =
osslbie that he has never heard of rival +
rlma donnas scratching and clawing. T
mt tins failure to regulate the emotions F
musicians may be the result of the q
'Ierance be%otten of overuse The same "
ing happens IN the medicine of the o.
resent day. An old morphia fend can d.
IKE enough OF the drug to kill a dozen !,
men. Then there are of course t,
Styrlans who, beginning to take ar. St
me when they are young, are III years r
to eat 1T as some people do garlic. Ii
However all this may be, the sedative ~
tect or music on patients in whom the al
SlrUment OF mind is like sweet bells a.
ngled ont Of tune and harsh" is uni c;
admitted. Canon Hartford. an :.
has reported clinical ex- Is
made by the st. Cecilia guild to
at show that 1t has a distinctly bene- -
;laI effect III certain cases of insomnia
ere, too, Il would think the time
nployed would have to be chosen with
ny nice judgment.
Music doubtless will relieve pain n
Il by acting on the nerve centers, but
~diStractimg the sufferers attention II
lis Is the I field for music as a
erapeuhc agency, and it is improbable
at 1t ever a do more. Orpheus made s
1eS and mountains dance to his Lutte.
IL the Pied Piper's music purged
of rats, but IL is very doubtful
le1her Canon Hartford will ever an
arm away a tumOr or rid "a tubercu- Fa
rs lung Of bacilli. Within limits.
viewer. music may be a most useful -
hdlhalden TO medicine, and in this age
nerves 1t might possibly be made to ,
~ an important bart in the nravaD+iop