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a good fiddle, took up that of his sick friend, which lay in the room, and began to play the tunes he knew he loved best. The company immediately took him to be the greater madman of the two, and began to chide him. But the sick man suddenly sate up, like one agreeably surprised, and by his motion endeavoured to keep time with the airs, but as he was still held by his arms he could only shew his satisfaction by his head. However those who held him finding him no way furious, by degrees gave him more liberty, till in a quarter of an hour he fell fast asleep, and had a crisis, which put him past all danger.

Let us now see a third example of the force of music, which surpasses the two former in the surprising manner of its effects. Few persons are strangers to the Tarantula*, and the terrible symptoms that attend its bite; but the extraordinary remedy used to alleviate and dispel them is not perhaps so well known. This remedy is music, applied in the manner we shall describe.

Soon after the bite of the Tarantula, which causes a sensation like the stinging of a bee or ant, the patient finds in the part a very sharp pain, which in some hours is followed with a tumour. In a short time he grows melancholy, with a difficulty of breathing, faint pulse, and wild look, and if not speedily assisted he loses all sense and motion, and dies. Such are the symptoms of this poison. The best and surest means of cure yet discovered are as follow.

When the patient is arrived at the last symptoms of being insensible or motionless, a musician tries different tunes, till he hits on one whose modulation and notes suit the person affected, so that he begins to stir, to move his fingers in cadence, next his feet, and at last recovers his limbs, so as to rise and dance to the air, still continuing the exercise with greater violence. There are some patients will dance thus for six hours without intermission. When exhausted with this fatigue the patient is put to bed, and after reposing awhile, he is awaked with the same tune to renew his dancing, continuing this method for some days (often five, six,

The Tarantula ia a large spider, hairy and about the size of an acorn, its colour various, with 8 eyes and 8 feet; from its mouth arise 2 horns or trunks, a little crooked, the tips exceedingly sharp, through which it conveys its poison; it is found near Tarento, whence it takes its name, and is to be met with in other parts of Italy, especially the Isle of Corsica. Those of Apulia are the most venomous, and in general those of the plains are most dangerous, because the air of Calabria is hotter in the plains than in the mountains. See Hist. de l'Academ. Royale des Sciences. An. 1702, p. 20.

or seven) till the patient finds he has no more inclination to dance, which is a sign of his cure. For while the effect of the poison lasts, he would, if left to himself, dance without intermission till he killed himself. As soon as he finds himself wearied he recovers by degrees his senses and judgment, and like one awakened from a deep sleep remembers nothing of what had passed in his delirium.

Sometimes the patient is cured on his coming out of the first fit. But if otherwise, he still is subject to a deep melancholy and forgetfulness. He shuns company, loves solitude, and if not carefully watched, is apt to drown himself. An aversion to the colours of black and blue, and a fondness for white, red, and green, are some of the odd symptoms of this distemper. If the patient dies not in the interval, the fit returns about the same time twelvemonth the bite happened, and music and dancing must again be called in. Some have had these regular relapses for 20 or 30 years together. Each patient has his particular specific tune; but in general, those found effectual are brisk and lively. These particulars are well attested, and were confirmed to the Royal Academy not only by M. Geoffroy, who had informed himself on the spot; but by the letters of a father jesuit of Toulon, to P. Gouye, in which he relates the cure of an Italian soldier bit by a Tarantula, whom he had seen dance for several days successively.

These facts may explain the case of Saul who found his indisposition relieved by the music of David; a case which has nothing in it more wonderful or extraordinary than those related. I even think, that the effects of music on the disordered brain of a man bit with the Tarantula, has something more inexplicable, more incomprehensibly strange in it. Some philosophers have attempted to account for these phenomena; but the secret causes of them are too concealed for us to discover. O Nature! Nature! how mysterious and inscrutable are thy ways! How feeble and bounded our knowledge!

As music has, in the above-mentioned instances, been found to be a very successful remedy in the several disorders in which it was applied; so it is not perhaps improbable, that it might be found efficacious in other disorders, such as the bite of a mad dog; especially if a time could be hit upon to make the patient dance and sweat. Since the evacuation in this manner of the inflammatory fluid is, according to Dr. Mead, the cause of cure in the bite of the Tarantula, the vibrations made on the nerves by tunes rightly modelled, operating as really on the nerves, as the Imperium Voluntatis can do. And M, Geoffroy says, the poisonous juice.

giving the nerves a degree of tension equal to that of some strings of an instrument, puts the nerves in unison to certain tones; and after being agitated by the undulations and vibrations of the air proper to those tones, obliges them to shake. 1743, Aug.

A genuine Letter from an Italian Gentleman, concerning the Bite of the Tarantula.

SIR,

ACCORDING to your desire I send you an account of the effect the bite of a Tarantula has upon the human body. I shall only give a distinct detail of all the circumstances that I have seen, having once been instrumental to the cure of a poor ploughman that was bit by that insect.

I will not undertake to give you any account of the Tarantula itself, being sure you are perfectly well acquainted with it: I shall only tell you what has happened in my country, at a small village, called La Torre della Annunziata, about ten miles from Naples, where I was at the time the affair I am going to relate happened.

It was in the month of October, a season of the year when all the students in Naples, that have any relations in the country, have leave to visit them. I was one of those that enjoyed the privilege of visiting the place of my nativity; and as I was then studying music in the college of Naples, whenever I went into the country, I brought my violin with me.

It happened one day that a poor man was taken ill in the street, and it was soon known to be the effect of the Tarantula, because the country people have some undoubted signs to know it by, and particularly (they say) that the Tarantula bites on the tip or under lip of the ear, because it generally bites those who sleep on the ground, and the wounded part becomes black, which happens three days afterwards, exactly at the hour of the hurt received: and they further assert, that if no person was to undertake to cure him who had been bitten, he would feel the effect of it every day at the same time for the space of three or four hours, till it would throw him into such madness as to destroy him in about a month; some (they say) have not died till three months after they have been bit; but this I cannot believe, because it never happens that any are suffered to die by such distemper, the priest of the parish being obliged to play on the fiddle in order to cure them; and none have been known, in the memory of man, to have died of it: but to proceed.

A poor man was taken ill in the street (as I said before) and as the priest was out of the way, several gentlemen begged

of me to play to the poor fellow. I could not help going, without offending a number of friends; when I was there I saw a man stretched on the ground, who seemed as if he was just going to expire. The people at the sight of me cried out-play-play the Tarantella: (which is a tune made use of on such occasions.) It happened that I had never heard that tune, consequently could not play it. I asked what sort of tune it was? They answered, that it was a kind of jig. I tried several jigs, but to no purpose, for the man was as motionless as before. The people still called out for the Tarantella; I told them I could not play it, but if any would sing it, I would learn it immediately: an old woman presented herself to me to do the good office, who sung it in such an unintelligible sound of voice, that I could not form an idea of it; but another woman came, and helped me to learn it; which I did in about ten minutes time, it being very short: but you must observe that while I was learning the tune, and happened to feel the strain of the first two bars, the man began to move accordingly, and got up as quick as lightning, and seemed as if he had been awakened by some frightful vision, and wildly stared about, still moving every joint of his body; but as I had not as yet learned the whole tune, I left off playing, not thinking that it would have any effect on the man. But the instant I left off playing, the man fell down, and cried out very loud, and distorted his face, legs, arms, and every other part of his body, scraped the earth with his hands, and was in such contortions, as clearly indicated him to be in miserable agonies. I was frightened out of my wits, and made all the haste I could to learn the rest of the tune; which done, I played near him, I mean about four yards from him. The instant he heard me, he rose up as he did before, and danced as hard as any man could do; his dancing was very wild; he kept perfect time in the dance, but had neither rule nor manner, only jumped and ran to and fro, made very comical postures, something like the Chinese dances we have sometimes seen on the stage, and otherwise every thing was very wild of what he did; he sweated all over, and then the people cried out faster-faster, meaning that I should give a quicker motion. to the tune, which I did so quick, that I could hardly keep up playing, and the man still danced in time. I was very much fatigued, and though I had several persons behind me, some drying the sweat from my face, others blowing with a fan to keep me cool, (for it was about two o'clock in the afternoon) others distancing the people that they might not throng about me; and yet notwithstanding all this, I suffered long patience to keep up such a long time, for I

played, without exaggeration, above two hours, without the least interval.

When the man had danced about an hour, the people gave him a naked sword, which he applied with the point in the palm of his hands, and made the sword jump from one hand into the other, which sword he held in equilibrium, and he still kept dancing. The people knew he wanted a sword, because a little before he got it, he scratched his hands very hard, as if he would tear the flesh from them.

When he had well pricked his hands, he got hold of the sword by the handle, and pricked also the upper part of his feet, and in about five minutes time his hands and feet bled in great abundance. He continued to use the sword for about a quarter of an hour, sometimes pricking his hands, and sometimes his feet with little or no intermission; and then he threw it away, and kept on dancing.

When he was quite spent with fatigue, his motion began to grow slower, but the people begged of me to keep up the same time, and as he could not dance accordingly, he only moved his body and kept time: at last after two hours dancing, he fell down quite motionless, and I gave over playing. The people took him up and carried him into a house, and put him into a large tub of tepid water, and a surgeon bled him; while he was bathing, he was let blood in both his hands and feet, and they took from him a great quantity of blood: after that they tied up the orifices, put him in a bed, and gave him a cordial, which they forced down, because the man kept his teeth very close. About five minutes after, he sweated a great deal, and fell asleep, which he did for five or six hours. When he awoke he was perfectly well, only weak from the great loss of blood he had sustained; and four days after he was entirely recovered, for I saw him walking in the streets; and what is remarkable, he hardly remembered any thing of what had happened to him, and has never felt any pain since.

This is what I know of the Tarantula, which I hope will satisfy your curiosity, and as you are a great philosopher may philosophize as you please. I need not make any apology for my bad writing, you must excuse it, considering that it was only to obey your commands: if you have any other, you may dispose of,

1753, Sept.

SIR, Your most humble servant,
STEPHEN STORace,

[*** Our readers will make proper allowance for the siyle of the above letter, as it was written by a foreigner. A few sentences, which were almost unintelligible, toe have taken the liberty to correct. E]

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