During the last century Hector Chomet[18], a Parisian physician, became interested in music and its application to disease. He wrote a short article setting forth his views, which he was to deliver to a group of medical men in Paris, but was put off time and again by his colleagues and by political upheavals. Each time, before replacing his paper on the shelf, Chomet made additions. This work grew to be the important thing in his life, and when he could contain himself no longer, he published a book on the subject which showed considerable research but which unfortunately contained as much invention as fact. Not content with the known and proved existence of blood and lymph as the chief body fluids, he added another--the “sonorous fluid,” which was influenced for the good or bad by the vibrations of musical sounds. At about the turn of the century Eva Vescelius, a woman of great charm, beauty and perseverance, reintroduced the use of music for mental disease under the guidance of a physician. There is little doubt that she gave great joy to many patients, but a differentiation must be made between personal attention and therapeutics. In her works[78] on the subject one can read enthusiastic accounts of past performances, but unfortunately her explanations and claims are pure phantasy, to wit: “For fever, high pulse, hysteria, arrest the attention, play softly and rhythmically to bring pulse and respiration to normal. Tests with instruments will prove that music will do this. Do not change too abruptly from one key to another; modulate and pause and let the musical impression be absorbed. Select songs that depict green fields and pastures new, the cool running brook, the flight of birds, the blue sky, the sea. “Fear is dissipated by music awakening in the listener the consciousness of the all enveloping Good. A high nervous tension is relieved and nerves are relaxed under the spell of a composition that swings the body into normal rhythmic movement. Sluggish conditions of body and mind are eliminated by the rhythmic waltz, polka or mazurka--music affecting the motor system. Insomnia is cured by the slumber-song, the nocturne, or the spiritual song that assures one of the Divine protection.” The use of music in hospitals is by no means limited to the application to mental disease. Recreation is needed to avoid boredom, for as Shakespeare said: “Sweet recreation barr’d, what doth ensue But moody moping and dull melancholy Akin to grim and comfortless despair And at her heels a huge infection troops Of pale distemperatures and foes to life.” The use of music as a diversion in hospitals received a great impetus in the First World War but made its greatest leap forward with the introduction of the portable bedside radio.