Stammering : its treatment / by B. Beasley.

  • Beasley, B.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Stammering : its treatment / by B. Beasley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER IV. •CAUSES OF STAMMERING. HAT is stammering? In considering this subject I shall endeavour to avoid any theories or specu- lations, and confine myself strictly to that which has come under my immediate notice, and speak only of cases with which I have been intimately acquainted. Stammering is frequently thought to arise from imper- fections in the organs of speech, but during my whole experience with thousands of cases I have never met with one stammerer whose impediment was so caused ; on the other hand I have witnessed it in its greatest intensity where there has been the most perfect organ- ization, mental vigour and capacity, strength of will, force of character, and abundance of health ; in fact with every qualification necessary to make a perfect outward There are five principal active causes. First, not opening the glottis so as to produce sound ; second, not allowing the lower jaw to have free play ; third, pressing the lips tightly together ; fourth, pressing the teeth too tightly against the lips; and, fifth (most difficult to get rid of), pressing the tongue tightly against the teeth or gums. In other words, stammering is caused by trying to speak in an impossible manner. Let any one try to articulate a word beginning with one of the letters B, P, or M without separating the lips ; or one beginning with either C, G, J, K, or Q, without separating the tongue from the palate ; or words beginning with the letters F or V without separating the lower lip from the upper teeth, and he will find his efforts are vain. man
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