Pulse

amid jars of magnetised water and to the caterwauling of a glass armonica?
    On 29th April 177–, Frau von P— was shown into M—’s study. She was clearly agitated, and refused to sit down.
    ‘I have come to remove my daughter from you.’
    ‘Has she indicated that she wishes to cease her treatment?’
    ‘ Her wishes … That remark, sir, is an impertinence. Her wishes are subordinate to her parents’ wishes.’
    M— looked at her camly. ‘Then I shall fetch her.’
    ‘No. Ring for a servant. I do not care for you to instruct her how to answer.’
    ‘Very well.’ He rang; Maria Theresia was fetched; she looked anxiously from one to the other.
    ‘Your mother wishes you to cease treatment and return home.’
    ‘What is your opinion?’
    ‘My opinion is that if this is what you wish, then I cannot oppose it.’
    ‘That was not what I asked. I was asking your medical opinion.’
    M— glanced across at the mother. ‘My … medical opinion is that you are still at a precarious stage. I think it very possible that a complete cure may be effected. Equally, it is very possible that any gains made, once lost, could never be recovered.’
    ‘That is very clear. Then I choose to stay. I wish to stay.’
    The mother instantly began a display of stamping and shouting, the like of which M— had never before encountered in the imperial city of V—. It was an outburst farbeyond the natural expression of Frau von P—’s Italian blood, and might even have been comical, had not her nervous frenzy set off an answering spasm of convulsion in the daughter.
    ‘Madam, I must ask you to control yourself,’ he said quietly.
    But this enraged the mother even more, and with two sources of provocation in front of her, she continued to denounce her daughter’s insolence, stubbornness and ingratitude. When M— tried to lay a hand on her forearm, Frau von P— turned on Maria Theresia, seized her, and threw her headlong into the wall. Above the women’s screams, M— summoned his staff, who held back the termagant just as she was about to set upon the doctor himself. Suddenly, another voice was added to the bedlam.
    ‘Return my daughter! Resist me and you die!’
    The door was thrown violently open, and Herr von P— himself appeared, a framed figure with sword aloft. Hurling himself into the study, he threatened to cut to pieces anyone who opposed him.
    ‘Then, sir, you will have to cut me to pieces,’ M— answered firmly. Herr von P— stopped, uncertain whether to attack the doctor, rescue his daughter, or console his wife. Unable to decide, he settled for repeating his threats. The daughter was weeping, the mother screaming, the physician attempting to argue rationally, the father noisily promising mayhem and death. M— remained dispassionate enough to reflect that the young Mozart would have happily set this operatic quartet to music.
    Eventually, the father was pacified and then disarmed. He departed with malediction on his tongue, and seeming to forget his wife, who stood for a few moments looking from M— to her daughter and back again, before herself leaving. Immediately, and for the rest of the day, M— sought to calm Maria Theresia. As he did so, he came to conclude that his initial presumption had been confirmed: Maria Theresia’sblindness had certainly been a hysterical reaction to the equally hysterical behaviour of one or both of her parents. That a sensitive, artistic child, in the face of such an emotional assault, might instinctively close herself off from the world seemed reasonable, even inevitable. And the frenzied parents, having been responsible for the girl’s condition in the first place, were now aggravating it.
    What could have caused this sudden, destructive outburst? More, surely, than a mere flouting of parental will. M— therefore tried to imagine it from their point of view. A child goes blind, all known cures fail until, after more than a dozen years, a new physician with a novel procedure begins to make her see again. The prognosis is optimistic, and the parents are rewarded at last for their love, wisdom, and medical courage. But then the girl plays, and their world is turned upside down. Before, they had been in charge of a blind virtuoso; now, sight had rendered her mediocre. If she continued playing like that, her career would be over. But even assuming that she rediscovered all her former skill, she would lack the originality of being blind. She would be merely one pianist