The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1903-01-22
MUSIC AS A HEALER.
1nstam ccs of Its Power to Heal HUI
man Ailments Gathered from
All Quarters.

All 8uartcEss
Few people are aware that music
can be utilized to lessen very consid-
erably the sufferings of a patient who
has to undergo surgical operation,
and it is only quite recently that it
was first scientifically put into prac-
tice, says London Answers.
Naturally enough, it was society
composed of medical men and musi-
clans, who made an exhaustive in
quiry and made various experiments
Of course the effect which music hasis.
directly speaking, on the mind, but the
mind reacts on the body, and it must.
therefore, be obvious that the patients
who are most likely to be benefited by
the judicious use of music are those
whose complaints are of mental
character-such, for instance, as mel
ancholia and hysteria.
Guided to large extent by the in-
| formation, one of the leading dentists
| of Paris, M. Donier, has been enabled
| to lessen the horror of tooth-dfawfng.
| He has three large establishments in
the busiest part of the French capital,
and he noticed that those patients to
whom he was obliged to give an anaes-
thetic-no matter of what kind, even
if it were only laughing gas-showed
very unfavorable symptoms when
they awoke from Inconsistencies,
their condition being largely due to
| the effect of the noise of the traffic in
| the street outside They suffered from
very severe headache and interference
| with vision; but what distressed them
most was that during the time they
were under the influence of the anaes-
| thetic they had usually horrid
dreams or imaginings.
| The dentist saw that If he could keep
the noise from the ears, and conse-
quently from the mind also of his pa
tients, great good would be done. The
only way to do this was to create
louder counteracting noise or sound,
which should be pleasant. not nerve
irritating. Obviously music was the
thing He tried phonograph and
still uses it. When patient is seated
in his chair he places the monographs
tubes to the ears and allows the in
strument to work for little while.
Then he administers the anaesthetic,
and he finds that the patient becomes
unconscious much more quickly and
easily, and requires much less anaes-
thetic than was formerly the case.
Not only that, but he can perform
the dental operation without inter-
ruption, and when the patient recov-
ers consciousness the after-effects are
very slight indeed, compared with
those which nearly always presented
themselves before the phonograph had
been numbered among the dentists
professional instruments.
Another form of suffering, more or
less mental, which music has the power
to relieve is insomnia. At a time when
the great majority of people were
quite unaware of this, the first Ma
, poleon put his knowledge of the fact
into practice. After his banishment
, to st. Helena, sleep was for long
, time almost denied to him, and the
effect on his general condition became
, so bad that his attendants became seri-
ously alarmed. At last he said:
81 must have. a couple of hours OF
music before going to bed" And night
, after night he took the pleasant "dose"
he had prescribed for himself. So I'M
, expectedly good were the-results that
instead of the slong wakefulness' that
Lord Rosebery refers to in INA.
poleon; the Last Phase" the fallen en-
peror slept, as rule, for eight and
sometimes even ten hours.
But perhaps the strangest use tt
which music can be put is to stop the
flow of blood from wound. An army
!. doctor noticed that when wounded
soldier was taken to within easy hear
ing of music, hemorrhage was either
' greatly reduced or actually stopped
y Neither he nor others, who confirmed
c his observations, could understand
how this phenomenon was brought
L about, but it is now believed that thu
S vibrations of the air produced by thu
S music causes the patient to becom
faint, in which case the action of tn,
heart is so considerably lessened tha
the overflow of blood from the woun,
= is necessarily reduced.
G. It would almost seem that the day j
n not far distant when the phonograp
n or some other musical instrument will
beregardedas almost sgreat a neces
E, sity to the medical man as the lance
or the stethoscope.
d
,l what Education Will Do.
!. A railway company was erecting
: line of new poles along highwa,
One of the men engaged to fill in th
dirt and clear up around the piles wa