The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
MUSIC AS A HEALTH PROMOTER.
Some Instruments Contribute Toward
Physical DeVeIOpment.

Chicago Tribune
The Goddess Euterpe, into whose kindly
ear the ancient Greeks, when they manu-
featured their mythology, contided the gen.
tie art of music, has never been regarded as
an especial patron of athletics, but accord
ing to the statements of physicians she
should be. Physical development, they have
discovered, follows in the wake of the wind
instrument. The unprinclpled individual
who in the dead hour of the, night, wakes
the echoes with the wild walls of a cornet
from his open window seeks melody; ordi-
narily he fails to find it, but he does OBJ
The American Band, a Chicago organiza-
ton of forty members, was photographed
last week Incidentally the players were
thing was found. The combined chest meas
urement of the forty men was 1874 inches.
Individually their chest measurement
ranged from thirty-six to forty-tlve inches,
the average measurement being 39. 80 inches,
and they were not big men, either. The
trombone player had the largest chest, for
ty-hVe inches being its circumference, and
the expansion thereof was seven inches.
Now, the average man in the ordinary
walks of life has not chest forty-hVe
inches around. He is much more likely to
fall ten inches below that mark, and as for
an expansion Of seven inches the same is
beyond the reach of his widest dreams. The
trombone man smiled blandly and designated
the trombone as the cause, and physicians
say he was right
Moreover, physicians go farther. The
statement has been made that of all pur-
suits within the reach of the man confined
indoors for the greater part of the time
by his work the playing of wind instru-
ment is one of the most likely to keep him
in good physical condition. 1t is possible,
they say, in factories and similar estab-
lishmentS where a band has been organized
to pick out the majority of its members by
the appearance of their chests and Shout
ders.
Also, the player of a wind instrument sell
dom dies of lung trouble. He may not be
a good player and may meet a violent end
through an ultimely exercise of his limited
n
than himself. But lung trouble he need not
fear Only one out of a thousand among
players of wind instruments, the medical
records show, comes to his death through
such diseases, and though any player may
happen to be that unfortunate one, he runs
a smaller chance of that particular miSfor-
tune than men in other walks of life.
The trombone, according to authorities,
is the instrument most conducive to phys
ical development After it comes the cor
net, and then in a line of decreasing pow
ers the other instruments of the same class.
But the trombone is the most efficient.
Insurance cor mics, whose aim to insure
the lives of o., .thv people only has led
them to invest igate many matters, require
chest expansion of two inches in appli-
cantS. The trombone player of the band
measured tells that one day in the recent
past he journeyed to the examiner of
life insurance company to undergo medical
scrutiny preparatory to taking out policy.
All went well till seven inches of expansion
was noted. Then the physician mopped his
brow and considered
we nave, ne Sdlu, d ISCOIu III lue
company. The average expansion of appli-
cants is not much over two and one-half
inches. The record expansion is four and
one-half. Under those conditions my repu-
tation will not allow me to send in the true
figures regarding your case. The obvious
deduction would be that | was intoxicated
or mentally deranged at the time the meas
urements were taken. l will send in the
figures as four and pne-half; not seven,
inches, and retain my reputation.
The chief objection to wind instruments
as developers is in the fact that the deve-
opment is q noisy process. However pleas
ant it may be to the performer, any but
expert manipulation of a trombone or COR
net is a trial to the neighbors. And to OBJ
tain physical benefits the instrument must
not be muted. A muted instrument it is
said forces the air back on the lungs and
destroys the benefit.