Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin.

  • George Catlin
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    escaped the clangers that beset him in infancy, he has grown up to manhood; and in his growth, the evil con- tracted in his infancy has grown and strengthened with his growth. Affectionate and doting mother, look at and observe the connection of the two,—see what fondness and kindness, without discretion, have done,—behold the twig that you bent and the tree that you have made. Prom a long and careless habit, the wires of his under jaw have lost their spring,—he sleeps with his mouth open during the night, and during the day he has not the power to keep it shut. By the hanging of his under jaw, a counter-effort arches his brows, im- pairing the characteristic expression of the eyes, and giving an aspect of indecision and insipidity to the whole face. The lips, always separated, with currents of alternate cold and heated air passing over them, become parched and feverish, of a cherry red, and swollen to an unnatural thickness, and a pestiferous breath is constantly exhaled from between them: and in eight cases of ten of these instances (for the world is full of them), if asked, ‘ What is the matter ? ’ the reply would be that—■* I stut-t-t-t-tuUli utter !5 and why not ? how can it be otherwise ? Stuttering may be defined to be an involuntary, nervous hesitation and vibration of the under iaw