This last Consideration makes it no very difficult matter to conceive the reason, why different Persons, infected with this Venom, do require oftentimes a different sort of Musick in order to their Cure, in as much as their Nerves and Distractile Membranes have differing Tensions, and consequently are not in like manner to be acted upon by the same Vibrations.
Nor are We to wonder at the Oddness of this Method and Practice; for Musick, altho’ it be Now-a-days applied to quite different Purposes, was anciently made great Use of for the removing of many, and those too some of the most difficult and obstinate Diseases.
For this we have a Famous Testimony in Galen himself, [(56)] who tells us, that Æsculapius used to recover Those in whom violent Motions of the Mind had induced a hot Temperament of Body, by Melody and Songs. Pindar [(57)] mentions the same thing; and indeed from hence not only the Notion, but the very Name of Charming [(58)] seems to have taken its Origine. Athenæus [(59)] relates that Theophrastus in his Book of Enthusiasm says, Ischiadic Pains are Cured by the Phrygian Harmony. This sort of Musick was upon a Pipe, and the most vehement and brisk, of all the Ancients knew; so that indeed it was said to raise those who heard it to downright Fury and Madness [(60)]: And such we have observed to be required to the Venom of the Tarantula.
But what is besides in this last Authority very observable to our Purpose, is the manner of using this Remedy, and that was [(61)] by Playing upon the part affected, which confirms what we have just now advanced concerning the Effect of the Percussion of the Air upon the Contractile Fibres of the Brain, for Piping upon any Member of the Body, cannot be suppos’d to do Service any other way, than by such Succussions and Modulated Vibrations as we before mention’d. And this indeed Cælius Aurelianus [(62)] agrees to, who calls this Practice, Decantare Loca dolentia; and says, that the Pain is mitigated and discuss’d by the Tremblings and Palpitations of the Part.
Aulus Gellius [(63)] not only relates this same Cure of Ischiadic Ails as a thing notorious enough, but adds besides out of Theophrastus, that the Musick of a Pipe rightly managed healed the Bites of Vipers.
And not only does Apollonius [(64)] mention the Cure of Distractions of the Mind, Epilepsies, and several other Distempers this same way; but Democritus [(65)] in his Treatise of Plagues, taught, that the Musick of Pipes was the Medicine for most Diseases; which Thales of Crete confirmed by his Practice, when sent for by the Lacedæmonians to remove from them the Pestilence, he did it by the help of Musick [(66)].
All which Instances do evince this Remedy to have been very ancient in many Cases; and indeed as Cælius-Aurelianus [(67)], takes notice that the first use of it was ascrib’d to Pythagoras himself, so He having settled and founded his Sect in those very Parts of Italy which are the Country of the Tarantulæ, going then under the Name of Græcia magna, now Calabria, it is not, I think, at all improbable that he may have been the Author and Inventor of this Practice there, which has continued ever since. Especially since Jamblichus affirms [(68)], not only that he made use of Musick in Physick, but particularly that he found out and contrived some Harmonies to ease the Passions of the Mind, and others for the Cure of Bites: But of Musick enough.
To conclude with this Poison, we may take notice that, as to the Return of the Symptomes the next Year, That is owing to the same excessive Heat in those Months, acting again upon the small remains of the Venomous Ferment; thus Bartholin [(69)] relates a Story of a Melancholy Physician at Venice who suffer’d the Attacks of his Disease only during the Dog-days, which yearly ended and return’d with them. A convincing proof how great a share Heat has in all these Cases.
