The musical program of a hospital need not necessarily be conducted by a musician, but a trained person is most desirable. There are people with an intense love for music and so comprehensive a grasp of its many fields that they might be capable of conducting a hospital program although unable to play an instrument. At some institutions music has been guided by volunteers with great satisfaction to staff and patients, but this is an age of specialization and a paid, trained musician will usually be worth the salary in efficiency, dependability, and control. DIRECTOR Music for patients differs from music for the well. The average musician is not qualified to decide which patients should or should not have music. There are too many well meaning musicians who have had one or two personal experiences or heard of others in which the efforts of the musician were rewarded by apparent miracles of mental reaction. Musicians are not capable of evaluating such changes nor do they bother to recount what the condition of the patient was an hour or a day after this personal exposure. Musicians must have medical direction. The medical director of music does not have to be a trained musician but he should be acquainted in a general way with most musical forms which appeal to a majority of patients. His most important qualification will be the ability to rise above personal prejudices of musical taste. He must recognize that musical tastes can be as diverse as individual appetites for different foods, and feel free to order music as he would food for patients. It will be his duty to prescribe quantity, quality, duration, and intervals of music; to contraindicate music for the irritable, certain post-operative patients, the acutely ill, and any others for whom he thinks music is wrong. It will be necessary for him to protect the patients from the possible musical whims, hobbies, convictions or over-enthusiasm of the musical aide. The director should be selected from volunteers on the staff. For the physician director of music to be chosen in any other way is to hamper the musical program. He must be a physician who has the time or can make the time to carry out his part adequately. At the outset the director should have daily conferences with the senior musical aide in which he should not only outline the procedures desired but should observe the musician at work with patients. MUSIC AIDE