MEDICAL MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 301, 29 March 1945, Page 5

MEDICAL MUSIC

Sir-I think this extract by Isaac D’Israeli (from Curiosities of Literature) may be of interest to many readers: In the Philosophical Magazine for May, 1806, we find that "several of the medical literati on the Continent are at present engaged in making enquiries and experiments upon the influence of music in the cure of diseases."" The learned Dusaux is said to lead the band of this new tribe of amateurs and coquoscenti. The subject excited my curiosity, though I since have found that it is no new discovery. There is a curious article in Dr. Burney’s History of Music, "On the Medicinal Powers attributed to Music by the Ancients,’’ which be derived from the learned labours of a modetn physician, M. Burette, who‘ doubtless could play a tune to, as well as prescribe one to, his patient. He coriceives that music can felieve the pains of sciatica, and that, independent of the greater or less skill of the musicians, by flattering the ear, and diverting the attention, and occasioning certain vibrations

of the nerves, it can remove those obstructions which occasion this disorder. M. Burette, and many modern physicians and philosophers have believed that music has the power of affecting the mind, and the whole nervous system, so as to give a temporary relief in certaiu diseases, and even a fadical cure. Dr. Mairan, Bianchini, and other respectable names, have pursued the same career, Music and the sounds of instruments, says the lively Vigneul de Marville, contribute to the health of the body and the mind; they quicken the circulation of the blood, they dissipate vapours, and open the vessels, so that the action of perspiration is freer. He tells a story of a person of distinction who assured him that,-once being suddenly seized by violent illness, instead of a consultation of physicians, he immediately called a band of musicians; and their violins played so well in his inside that his bowels became perfectly in tune, and in a few hours were harmoniously becalmed. The Maori haka is a cood examole.

E.

McLAREN

| (Christchurch).