This account was communicated to the Academy by M. Dodart, who had it
well authenticated.
The second instance of the extraordinary effect of music is related of a
dancing-master of Alais, in the province of Languedoc. Being once
over-fatigued in Carnival time by the exercise of his profession, he was
seized with a violent fever, and on the fourth or fifth day, fell into a
lethargy, which continued upon him for a considerable time. On
recovering he was attacked with a furious and mute delirium, wherein he
made continual efforts to jump out of bed, threatened, with a shaking
head and angry countenance, those who attended him, and even all that
were present; and he besides obstinately refused, though without
speaking a word, all the remedies that were presented to him. One of the
assistants bethought himself that music perhaps might compose a
disordered imagination. He accordingly proposed it to his physician, who
did not disapprove the thought, but feared with good reason the
ridicule of the execution which might still have been infinitely
greater, if the patient should happen to die under the operation of such
a remedy.
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