MUSIC AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ANIMALS. [To THE EDITOR OP
THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—John Wesley once tried the effect of music upon animals, and records the result of his experiment in his " Journals," under date Monday, December 31st, 1764 :—" I thought it would be worth while to make an 'odd experiment. Remem- bering how surprisingly fond of music the lion at Edinburgh was, I determined to try whether this was the case with all animals of the same kind. I accordingly went to the Tower with one who plays on the German flute. He began playing near four or five lions ; only one of these (the rest not seeming to regard it at all) rose up, came to the front of his den, and seemed to be all attention. Meantime, a tiger in the same den started up, leaped over the lion's back, turned and ran under his belly, leaped over him again, and so to and fro incessantly.. Can we account for this by any principle of mechanism ? Can we account for it at all ? "
There is not, so far as I am aware, any entry in the " Journals " in reference to the Edinburgh lion. Mr. Wesley may, of course, simply have heard or read of this.—I am,
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