The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1903-01-02
MUSIC AS A HEALER.
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Few people are aware that music
can be utilized to lessen very consid-
erably the sufferings Of . patient who
has to undergo q surgical operation,
and it is only quite recently that It
was first scientifically put into prac-
tice, says London Answers. ..s
Naturally enough, it was society
composed Of medical men and must
clans, who made an exhaustive in
quiry and made various experiments.
OF course the effect which music has il,
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 a large extent by the in
formation, one of the leading dentists
Of Paris, NJ. Donier, has been enabled
to lessen the horror of tooth-drawing.
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.
tents, 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 photograph 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 photograph 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 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 Punishment
to st. Helena, sleep was for a 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:
III 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 un-
expectedly good were the results that
instead Of the "long wakefulness" that
Lord Rosebery refers to in ma
poleon; the Last Phase" the fallen en-
peror slept, as a rule, for eight and
sometimes even ten hours.
But perhaps the strangest use to
which music can be put is to stop the
flow of blood from a 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.
Neither he nor others, who confirmed
his observations, could understand
how this phenomenon was brought
about, but it is now believed that the
vibrations of the air produced by the
music causes the patient to become
faint, in which case the action of the
heart is so considerably lessened that
the overflow of blood from the wound
is necessarily reduced.
It would almost seem that the day is
not far distant when the photograph
or some other musical instrument will
be regarded as almost as great a neces-
sity to the medical man as the lancet
or the stethoscope.
What Education Will Do.
A railway company was erecting a
line of new poles along a highway.
One of the men engaged to fill in the
dirt and clear up around the piles was