Stammering and stuttering : their nature and treatment / by James Hunt.

  • James Hunt
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Stammering and stuttering : their nature and treatment / by James Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    written upon this subject has the exact discrimina- tion between these disorders, which differ both in kind and in origin, been laid down with scientific correctness. From this confusion of terms have arisen many errors in theory and in practice ; for no treatment can be efficacious unless our diagnosis be correct. It is, therefore, requisite that the distinc- tive character of each affection should be clearly defined at the very outset. Stammervng (per se) is characterised by an inability or difficulty of properly enunciating some or many of the elementary speech sounds, either when they occur at the beginning or the middle of a word, accompanied or not, as the case may be, by a slow, hesitating, more or less indistinct delivery, but unattended with frequent repetitions of the initial sounds, and conse- quent convulsive efforts to surmount the difficulty.* * The following is the description of the stammer of a little girl of ten years old, in the parents’ own words:—“ The child does not appear to be timid or nervous except before strangers. The stammering does not seem to be caused by any particular sounds, as she can pronounce, at times, every different vowel and consonant without difficulty. She rarely commences a sentence with a stam- mer, but in the middle of it, or even of a word of one syllable, will stop with her mouth wide open and keep moving her jaw without uttering any sound, and cannot be persuaded to stop until the word is spoken. When repeating after another person, she does so without the slightest hesitation; but then, after reading after another for several days, she read in so monotonous and drawling
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