ANIMALS. 3')> 



playing, the patient seemed desirous of dancing to the sound : 

 but he was tied, and incapable of leaving his bed, so that he 

 could only humour the tune with his head, and those parts of his 

 arms which were at liberty. Thus the other continued playing, 

 and the dancing-master practised 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 came to a crisis, he awaked 

 perfectly recovered. 



" A thousand other instances might be added, equally true : 

 let it suffice to add one more, which is not true ; I mean that oi 

 the tarantula. Every person who has been in Italy now well 

 knows, that the bite of that animal, and its being cured by music, 

 is all a deception. When strangers come into that part of the 

 country, the country people are ready enough to take money for 

 dancing to the tarantula. A friend of mine had a servant who suf- 

 fered himself to be bit ; the wound, which was little larger than 

 the puncture of a pin, was uneasy for a few hours, and then be- 

 came well without any farther assistance. Some of the country 

 people, however, still make a tolerable livelihood of the credulity 

 of strangers, as the musician finds his account in it not less than 

 the dancer." 



Sounds, like light, are not only extensively diffused, but ara 

 frequently reflected- The laws of this reflection, it is true, are 

 not as well understood as those of light ; all we know is, that 

 sound is principally reflected by hard bodies ; and their being 

 hollow, also, sometimes increases the reverberation. " No art, 

 however, can make an echo ; and some who have bestowed 

 great labour and expense upon such a project, have only erected 

 shapeless buildings, whose silence was a mortifying lecture upon 

 their presumption." 



The internal cavity of the ear seems to be fitted up for thb 

 purpose of echoing sound with the greatest precision. This 

 part is fashioned out of the temporal bone, like a cavern cut into 

 a rock. " In this the sound is repeated and articulated ; and, 

 as some anatomists tell us, (for we have as yet but very little 

 knowledge on this subject,) is beaten against the tympanum, or 

 idrum of the ear, which moves four little bones joined thereto ; 

 and these move and agitate the internal air which lies on ttij 

 other side ; and lastly, this air strikes and affects the aiiHitnry 

 nen-es, which carry the sound to the biaiii." 



2 II 2 



