A great number of references during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries attests to the wondrous workings of music against mental disturbances. Wilhelm Albrecht[1] reported a patient who was suffering from melancholia. Many remedies had been tried, when as a last resort the physician requested that a certain _ritournello_ be played. As soon as the patient heard it, he began to laugh with all his might and hopped out of his bed completely cured. More interesting is the observation of Champlain[17] who wrote on his return from America, “It is the custom in America when one is sick, to divert them with loud music, to prevent brooding about the condition and thus help restore health.” Mozart was not the first to call the flute “magic.” To Democritus was attributed the story of abolishing plague with its music. Jean-Baptiste Porta claimed that one could cure all disease with music, provided that one used a flute made of the wood of the plant which was a known specific for the disease to be treated. Thus one could cure mental disease with flutes made of hellebore stems. One could return some vigor to the impotent with flutes made of orchid stems, and fainting could be cured by playing on a flute made of cinnamon wood.[67] Philippe Pinel, the physician credited with being the first to accord the mentally ill humane treatment reported at least one instance of the use of music in the treatment of epilepsy. “During the attacks, the sense of hearing, far from being deadened, seemed to have acquired more keenness. A skilful musician played on the violin at the patient’s side during her paroxysm. Although she then appeared insensible to the charm of music, she was so strongly effected by it, that she admitted after having recovered entire consciousness, that the music had thrown her into a state of rapturous delight.” Literature abounds with many accounts of the use of music by lesser medical lights. Sauvages[18] mentioned a young man who had attacks of intermittent fever accompanied by violent headaches which could be soothed only by the sound of a drum played loudly. This same patient did not like music when in good health. Instances of this nature may be explained on the basis of counter-irritation, wherein a new disturbance superimposed upon an old one may counteract it. In the eighteenth century, Brocklesby[13] summarized the known literature of music in relation to health and disease and, considering the status of medicine in his day, made a fair appraisal of its value.