No Need To Stutter

Staminering and stutteriag are now ernianently eured in New York by a mple method. These affiictions dififer ut slightly. In one case there is inabil;y to prononnce certain words ; in the ther, certain sounds. Neither, accordng to a New York professor, who is a gradúate of a Germán college for the ocal organs, is a disease, but both are ïabits that will disappear under proper reatment. The iÉtibility to talk plainly or to ariculate except with great effort, when ue to organic tronble or malformation, oes not come under the head of stammering and is not within the scope of ae stuttering specialist. "The whole thing is very simple," aid the professor, "so simple that you will smile when I teil you that the sole and only cause of stuttering and stammering is careless respiration. People who suffer from the impediment have nly to pause, take in a long breath, nd then, opening the moutli in the manner laid down in the charts used by elocutionists, pronounce the word sharply. Have you never noticed the remarkable fact that people who are invetérate stammerers are often accomplished vocalists? That is because in the act of singing respiration is done in a proper way. "A novel fact is that the troubles of stammerers or stutterers lie entirely with the vowel sounds. Patients do not seem to understand this. In describing their cases they will teil me that they have difficulty in sounding 'p'or'd. ' That is where they are wrong. They sound the consonant all right, but stagger at the vowel. A patiënt comes to me, and I say to him, say 'papa. ' He will commence p-p-p-p-p, oh, professor, I c-c-c-c-c-c-an't say p-p-p-p-papa.' "It is at once apparent that his trou)le lies with the vowel ' a. ' Then the ireatment commences. Standing before lim, I suggest that he take a long breath through the partially closed mouth until the lungs are well filled, and then, at the moment of exhalation, 'ollowing my direction, he opens the nouth iu the proper manner, as indiated by a chart, and pronounces with me in a high, jnechanical voice, 'pawaw. ' This is of ten repeated, the vowels jeing ohanged. "From words we pass gn to sentences and so on to introduce in close connection all the vowel sounds. The respiration jefore each vowel sound is necessary. The treatment therefore consists in forming this habit. As the patiënt pupil projresses the length of this respiration is reduced, the prouunciation is made in a lower pitch and in a few weeks, rarely over five, tbe most invetérate stntterer can talk fluently and rapidly with no sigu of hisfonnerafiliction. Buteternal vigilance is neoessary. "Should the appiirently cured patiënt becoine careless and forget tbe necessity of respiratiou as taught him, he may relapse into his former state, and then his training must be done all over again. A boy 16 years of nge was occe brought to me. His was a stubbom case, Irat in six weeks I had him talking all right. Time passed on for two years. I frequently saw tbe boy at his father 's house and was delighted with the eme. Last suniruer he came to ny institute. He was as bad off as when I first niet him. "It seems that his father had sent him on a short business trip to Europe, away from the rëstraining influence of the fcher, whose ears were always alert for any return of kis son 's affliction, and much disturbed, as he explained to me, by the noise of the vessel's inachinery, he became careless, and having once relapsed he became worse every day, and was really forced to 6horten his stay abroad and return to New York for treatment. ' ' He was a bright lad, who readily applied himself to my rules, and in a week he was all right again. As a matter of fact, he need not to have come back to me, but could have applied hia old lessons with success. "The Germán government has long recognized the importance of rational treatment of vocal impediments, and school children afflicted iu this manner ai-e put through a regular course by graduates of the college at Frankfort, where this specialty is taught in the government employ. The Germán treatment is that of elementary training in elocution. ' ' The habit of imperfect respiration is generally found in connectiou with some diseases of childhood like the measles, but a most frequent cause is unconscious imitation. One stuttering child in a family will set all the others to struggling with the vowel sounds. An adult in conversation with a stutterer finds it difflcult to speak without