anoff evidently prefers to regard the phenomena as
being all upon the same plane, namely, that of physiology; and until we
know the difference between mind and body, and the principles of their
interaction, it is obviously impossible to controvert this view
successfully. From the immediately practical point of view we should
not ignore the possible value of music in some states of disease. In
melancholia and hysteria it is probably capable of being used with
benefit, and it is worth bearing in mind in dealing with insomnia.
Classical scholars will not forget that the singing of birds was tried
as a remedy to overcome the insomnia of Maecenas. Music is certainly a
good antidote to the pernicious habit of introspection and
self-analysis, which is often a curse both of the hysteric and of the
highly cultured. It would seem obviously preferable to have recourse to
music of a lively and cheerful character."

Idiosyncrasies of the visual organs are generally quite rare. It is
well-known that among some of the lower animals, e.g., the
turkey-cocks, buffaloes, and elephants, the color red is unendurable.
Buchner and Tissot mention a young boy who had a paroxysm if he viewed
anything red. Certain individuals become nauseated when they look for a
long time on irregular lines or curves, as, for examples, in
caricatures. Many of the older examples of idiosyncrasies of color are
nothing more than instances of color-blindness, which in those times
was unrecognized. Prochaska knew a woman who in her youth became
unconscious at the sight of beet-root, although in her later years she
managed to conquer this antipathy, but was never able to eat the
vegetable in question. One of the most remarkable forms of idiosyncrasy
on record is that of a student who was deprived of his senses by the
very sight of an old woman. On one occasion he was carried out from a
party in a dying state, caused, presumably, by the abhorred aspect of
the chaperons The Count of Caylus was always horror-stricken at the
sight of a Capuchin friar. He cured himself by a wooden image dressed
in the costume of this order placed in his room and constantly before
his view. It is common to see persons who faint at the sight of blood.
Analogous are the individuals who feel nausea in an hospital ward.

All Robert Boyle's philosophy could not make him endure the sight of a
spider, although he had no such aversion to toads, venomous snakes,
etc. Pare mentions a man who fainted