Music -- Physiological effect; Music, Influence of
Many other cures are cited. Xenocrates employed the sound of
instruments in the cure of maniacs; and Appolonius Dyscolos claimed
that music was a sovereign remedy for dejection of the spirits and a
disordered mind, and that the sound of a flute would cure epilepsy and
sciatic gout. Athenaeus rendered the cure for gout more certain by
playing music in the Phrygian mode, while Aulus Gellius insisted that
the music be soft and gentle, the opposite of the furious Phrygian.
Coelius Aurelianus introduced a concept which reappeared at several
widely separated times. He called it _loca dolentia decantare_,
or enchanting the disordered places. He claimed that the pain
was relieved by causing a vibration in the fibres of the affected
part. There is little doubt that music causes a physical vibration
of the air, but the force that such vibrations could have on most
tissues is negligible. Other writers recommended that the instrument
be held against the part to be treated for direct transmission of
the vibrations, but if physical excitement is desired this can be
accomplished more uniformly by applications known as manipulation or
massage. Such manipulations are known to be helpful in some conditions,
but not curative in painful conditions such as sciatica.
Nearchus, who accompanied Alexander the Great in his conquests,
reported that in India the only remedy against the bite of a serpent
was a chant[70]. Galen, one of the soundest physicians of ancient
Rome, recommended music as an antidote to the bite of vipers and
scorpions[7], and for centuries music was recommended for the bite of
a tarantula. In the seventeenth century three physicians named Mead,
Burette and Baglivi explained this use of music. They said that it
threw the patient into a violent fit of dancing which brought out a
plentiful perspiration, and with it the poison. Since perspiration
consists of water and a few simple salts, such activity would increase
the concentration of the poison in the circulating blood, and neither
the explanation nor the treatment is acceptable[28]. Music was
recommended not only for the bites of the reptiles and insects; Desault
recommended it in the treatment of hydrophobia[23]. Not all bites
are poisonous, and it is likely that in the case of the two patients
mentioned the cure was more for fright than bite.
The effects of music on the mind were too obvious to escape the
ancients. When the armies of Greece took the field, they were
accompanied by the best musicians, who by their martial strains
inspired the soldiers with a kind of mechanical courage never
experienced by their enemies.
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