The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-15
Mercer of MUSIC and Medicine.

Music that hath charms to soothe the
savage breast can also cure prickly
heat. This is one of the tenets of the
Society for the Culture of Musical
Therapeutics, whose object is TO place
in the hand of Aesculapius the hand Of
Wagner, and set them walking together
along the immortal way, to bind with
Sympa thetic thong the lancet and the
tuning fork, to harmonic music and
medicine, to pair the with the
satcheI and the with-the- violin
case in professional visits to the sick
chamber.
Frankly, Miss Augusta Vescelius,
head of the musical therapeutics cult,
says that in mysticism is still shrouded
the lengths to which music as a balm
to the ills of the body, heart and mind
can go.
For instance, it is not established
that the tintinnabulations of the trt-
angle have any value in the cure of
warts, nor that a diet of shredded
wheat biscuits and rag-time is sure
cure for dyspepsia, and certainly the
crashing of cymbals is no substitute
for bromO settler.
But with little sonata salve or a
serenade solution, fever can be cured
and all the effects of a vapor bath are
TO be had from a few spirited Wag-
merriam rendftions-of these things the
Society for the Culture of Musical The
rapueticS is positive.
And they are far indeed from being
without recognition in the peculiar OBJ
5ect of establishing a tuneful clinic to
go with the surgeons scalpel and the
doctors pill.
Miss Viscelius is positive that not
only will tired nerves and disordered
minds come back to health under lib
eral doses of Beethoven, Meyerbeer,
NIendeIssohn, Wagner, Verdi, Mascagnf
h
To be had in purely physical diseases as
well.
The vibrations to be secured in the
playing of certain of the most fervid
Wagnerian selections" she says, will
produce not only a mental but d phySi-
cal effect-the effect of a vapor bath.
II VIII induce perspiration. quick heart
action and enIivened blood circulation.
And in that you have a cure for such
things as anemia, paralysis and the
like.
= don't mean that music alone will
cure. But as physicians aid it can
not be OveTestimated. Practical expert
ment is back of my statements. For
instance in fever here are two pre-
-scIiptions which 1 have known to work
absolute cures.
The first is the first movement of
the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata 1t
should be repeated as often as neces-
stry. Calm will come to the patient.
1t rarely fails to induce sleep.
The other prescription is this-the
playing Of Schuberts 'Serenade.' Gent
~, sweetly the rhythm and the haT-
fnOny steal with calming effect upon
the senses. You viii see how practical
It is. With the calming of the senses,
what comes but the cooling of the
blood?
In observation-disclosures and lots of
it, viii cure-the long rhythm and the
long pauses and the vibrations they
cause increase heart action, enliven
the whole physical system and-there
you are.
The value of music as an adjunct to
the hypnotic practitioner has long been
established" said the stately, fair
haired leader of the cult; and while so
far the practice of my theories has been
confined more or less in fashionable
circles, [ have also made experiments
to establish the beneficial effect of mu-
sic in curing the ills of all people gen.
orally.
These experiments have been in the
city hospitals. 1t is not the cultured
person alone who is amenabIe to the in
nuenceS of music as a medicine. All
human beings are subjective to music
They may not be consciously subjective
to it. They may scott at the idea that it
ever reaches their minds, that it ever
stirs them.
But the deafest. you see, is absolute
~ subjective to the sound vibrations of
musical selections. Wagner is the
greatest of all for vibrations. Wagner
gets into most of the prescriptions.
For Migratory purposes and for con-
TeyIHg the physical effect of rhythm
and harmony, the violin, the vfolfnceIIo
and the piano are the best-welI-phy-
sician's instruments. The tones are
richer, their Migratory quality can best
be regulated from the gentle to the
strong and intense"