Delisle
mentions a young person who during a whole year passed pieces of
ascarides and tenia, during which time he could not endure music.
Autenreith mentions the vibrations of a loud noise tickling the
fauces to such an extent as to provoke vomiting. There are some
emotional people who are particularly susceptible to certain
expressions. The widow of Jean Calas always fell in a faint when
she heard the words of the death-decree sounded on the street.
There was a Hanoverian officer in the Indian war against
Typoo-Saib, a good and brave soldier, who would feel sick if he
heard the word "tiger" pronounced. It was said that he had
experienced the ravages of this beast.
The therapeutic value of music has long been known. For ages
warriors have been led to battle to the sounds of martial
strains. David charmed away Saul's evil spirit with his harp.
Horace in his 32d Ode Book 1, concludes his address to the
lyre:--
"O laborum
Dulce lenimen mihicumque calve,
Rite vocanti;"
Or, as Kiessling of Berlin interprets:--
"O laborum,
Dulce lenimen medieumque, salve,
Rite vocanti."
--"O, of our troubles the sweet, the healing sedative, etc."
Homer, Plutarch, Theophrastus, and Galen say that music cures
rheumatism, the pests, and stings of reptiles, etc.
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