THE PREVENTION AND CURE OF STUTTERING. 45 
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rosis of co-ordination which obstructs the utterance of the syllables by spastic 
contractions at the stop-points for vowels and consonants in the articu- 
lating tube. . . . If we examine more closely the processes that inter- 
fere with the proper sequence of syllables in stuttering, we shall find that 
the three muscular actions, the expiratory, the vocalic, and consonantal, 
which are combined in the enunciation of sentences, are not harmoniously 
co-ordinated. . . . These three muscular actions are not correctly 
balanced with regard either to the force or the duration of the contrac- 
sions. On the one hand, the respiratory action required for speech is de- 
fective, and on the other, the tension of the vocalic or consonantal muscles 
is spasmodically increased.” Clouston, in his book ¢“ On the Neuroses of 
Development,” assigns stammering and backwardness of speech a promi- 
nent place in the neuroses peculiar to what he denominates the period of 
most rapid brain-growth, of special sense education, and of the development 
of the leading motor co-ordinations, viz., from birth to seven years of age. 
Though any one or all of the series of organs concerned in speech may 
oe affected in one who stutters, the primary vice is so often uncontrolled 
respiration, that the first procedures employed by those who are most suc- 
cessful in the treatment of stuttering consist of respiratory gymnastics. In 
other words, they begin by training the most fundamental mechanisms in 
order to restore co-ordination, thus instinctively. if not willingly, taking 
the law of evolution as a guide. It would be an easy matter to multiply cita- 
‘ions showing how largely gymnastic measures are employed in the cure 
of the stuttering habit, especially in the severer cases in which involuntary 
spasms of the facial, throat, and other muscles constitute a marked and 
crying feature ; but it seems to be sufficiently clear from what has been 
said, that, both in preventing and in abating stuttering, we must needs 
apply the principles of rational physical training. The training of the 
speech-producing organs is essentially a special branch of physical training. 
[ hold that if the motor education of the youngest children in our schools 
were properly organized in the departments of free play and gymnastics, 
ery much stuttering would be prevented. Effectually to prevent the 
development and spread of stuttering, more radical measures are called for. 
In this connection, the opinion of Professor A. Melville Bell should 
carry weight. So long ago as 1866 he wrote as follows: ¢ No part of 
aducation is, in general, so lightly esteemed as that of first learning to speak 
and read ; yet, rightly considered, none is of more consequence. The 
first governess, tutor, or schoolmaster should be a model of distinctness in 
his own practice, and should be also intimately acquainted with the physi- 
ology of articulation, that he may, both by wise precept and potent example, 
mold the plastic mouth to grace, and give easy play to the delicate machin- 
ery of speech. With proper initiatory training and school surveillance, 
stammering and its train of silent errors would be altogether unknown.” 
The literature on stuttering is voluminous ; much of it, owing to the