AKT. 15. 



HISTORY OF MEDICIXE EXHIBITS WHITEBREAD. 



17 



Music. — ^The use of instrumental music in the treatment of disease 

 is of veiy ancient origin. David is said to have cured Saul of an 

 attack of melancholia (mania) hj playing on the harp in his pres- 

 ence. The eminent Greek physicians Pythagorus, Hippocrates, 

 Theophrastus, Galen, and others of renown recommended it. 



Jean Battiste Porta, in the sixteenth centurj^, advised that musical 

 instruments be made of wood of medicinal plants, and affirmed that 

 the music of these instruments would produce the medicinal effects 

 of the plants. 



Fig. 0. — Egyptian Harp. 



In later times it is said to have been successfully used in the treat- 

 ment of the delirium of fevers, the plague, gout, poisoned wounds, 

 to mitigate the pain of surgical operations, and especially in nervous 

 affections such as hysteria and melancholia. It is found to be bene- 

 ficial in the management of the insane, and musical entertainments 

 are frequent in all modern institutions for their treatment. 



Egyptian Harp. — From a wall painting in a tomb at Thebes. The harp 

 illustrated in Figure 9 probably represents a larger and more elaborate form 

 of the musical instrument used by David for the relief of Saul during an attack 

 of melancholia. 



" But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from 

 the Lord troubled him. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God 



