The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-05
MUSIC
 IS OF BENEFIT
 FOR SICKNESS
New York Physicians Seek For Proper Treat
 ment.

New York. March - Whether music hath not only charms to soothe the savage breast but a therapeutic value for healing the diseased body is a question that is about to be scien- tifca1ly investigated if the plans ot certain New York musicians and phy- sicians can be carried out. The idea was given momentum @ few days aga
 by the calling of a meeting by those interested.
 The first step in this program is to prove to the County Medical Society
 that music actually is a healing art
 All physicians and surgeons will be
 asked to submit the results of any ob-
 servations made by them on eases
 where music has been a factor in the treatment. These cases will be carefully sifted and analysed and the logical deduc- tions made; this will provide a basis
 for the work of co-ordinating medi- cal-even surgical - treatments with
 musical, and the determination of the
 proper musical "dose'' for each di- sease. A musical prescription" is what this amounts to.
 Director Charles D. IsaacSon will | undoubtedly prove a most valuable
 witness for the proponents of musical therapeutics. He has actually been
 applying the musical treatment-un-
 der medical direction of course - for over five years. His field has covered
 such institutions as Bellevue, Central
 IsIip Insane Asylum, Wards Island, | RandalPs Island, Paupers House and Sing Sing prison and hospital. My experiments. however, have not heen by any means confined to men, | tai ailments as insomnia, indigestion and various other organic and chronic i troubles can be so claSsed.
 tHThe best music for curative effects ] is the violin and the soprano voice. It i is only the liquid, flowing notes - moi the strongly cadenced ones---that are soothing; certain instrumental music has the same effect on a patient as a
 saw drawn across his bare flesh cello, for instance, would be abso- Iute1y injurious. for it induces melan- | choIy; and most wind instruments are 1 not suitable.
 ! Som etimes, however, the effect de- sired is to startIe the patient out of | some temporary mood, and in such cases music can be used, as a doctor l would use, for instance, strychn1ne to stimulate heart action.
 Almost every one vfbrates or re- i spends to certain notes or tunes more
 than to others. Theodore Roosevelt
 could never hear Massenet's 'Ouvrez Tes Yeux B1eus' without showing
 emotion. This individuality of note l appeal is something to be reckone6 1 with in musical treatments.
 Hungarian music and jazz are not
 for sick people. One of the most eff fective pieces for musical treatments ! is Mende1ssohn's On Wings of Song. ! Other are Dvorak's Songs My Mother | Taught Me- and both Gounod's and
 Bach's Ave Maria As in medicine l music is sometimes desired as coun,
 ter irritant, to stimulate by it's v4gor'
 ous contact with the nerves. For this
 purpose the selection would be sucl pieces as the prelude of Rachmaninof or Wagner's March of the Valky ries.' ''
 Dr. s1egfried Block, who is con 1 nected with Central Institution a:
 IsIip as neurologist, is chairman O.
 the organization which is being form
 ed to arouse interest in this subject.