40 HISTORY OF 



consequence was much more terrible than he ex- 

 pected ; for, becoming actually mad, he killed 

 four of his attendants, in the midst of his tran- 

 sports. A contrary effect of music we have,* in 

 the cure of a madman of Alais, in France, by 

 music. This man, who was a dancing-master, 

 after a fever of five days, grew furious, and so 

 ungovernable, that his hands were obliged to be 

 tied to his sides : what at first was rage, in a 

 short time was converted into silent melancholy, 

 which no arts could exhilarate, nor no medicines 

 remove. In this sullen and dejected state, an old 

 acquaintance accidentally came to inquire after 

 his health : he found him sitting up in bed, tied, 

 and totally regardless of every external object 

 round him. Happening, however, to take up a 

 fiddle that lay in the room, and touching a favou- 

 rite air, the poor madman instantly seemed to 

 brighten up at the sound j from a recumbent 

 posture he began to sit up ; and as the musician 

 continued playing, the patient seemed desirous of 

 dancing to the sound j but he was tied, and in- 

 capable of leaving his bed, so that he could only 

 humour the tune with his head, and the parts of 

 his arms which were at liberty. Thus the other 

 continued playing, and the dancing-master prac- 

 tised his own art, as far as he was able, for about 

 a quarter of an hour, when suddenly falling into 

 a deep sleep, in which his disorder catne to a cri- 

 sis, he awaked perfectly recovered. 



" A thousand other instances might be added, 

 equally true : let it suffice to add one more, which 



* Hist, dc 1'Acad. 1708, p. 22. 



