THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1922, Page 2

THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES.

The Power Of Music,

The power of music to stimulate the emotions, and the effect it has upon the bodily health, has long been known. For instance: A regiment of soldiers have been sent out on a long march, and every soldier feels dead tired and weary —tile band strikes up, and immediately each member of the regiment becomes a changed man ; lie is no longer languid and weary, but alert, and marches with a rhythmical swing. .The value of music for keeping up the spirits of an army has long been made use of. The reaspn for this stimulation is due to the fact that we have, throughout our bodies, different glands known to science as the ductless glands, and these glands secrete something peculiar to each, which are known as hormones, or chemical messengers. These chemical messengers, by their individual action, will affect the growth; and we may be short or tall, fat or thin, sluggish or alert, just as they are active or Inactive. Schafer—the great phyiolopjst—has demonstrated that the secretion of theso hormones is particularly stimulated by the emotions, and here we have the secret as to why music will make a man dance {it one time and cry another. ' .... .