Few still believed with Porta that music, in the material reality of its sound, brought to the body the secret virtues hidden in the substance of the instruments, and that lymphatic sufferers were cured by 'a lively air played on a holly flute', nor that melancholics were soothed by 'a sweet air played on a hellebore flute', nor that impotent or frigid men could be cured with 'a flute made from larkspur or iris stems'.