Sixthly. Let the patient effectually conquer the bad habit which prevails so largely among those who stutter or stammer (I really think my own experience warrants me in saying in ninety-nine out of every hundred stammerers) of keeping the lips apart and the mouth open. Nothing can be worse in every way than this bad habit, either as regards the power of clear articulation and fluent speech, the proper condition of the lungs, or the vacant expression which it gives the countenance. I always tell all stammering pupils frankly, if I see they have this vile habit, that I can do very little, if anything, towards removing their various impediments until they have thoroughly conquered it, and acquired the habit of always keeping the lips firmly but easily pressed together; except, of course, when reading or speaking. Even in sleep, if possible, the mouth should always be kept closed, and the respiration only carried on through the air-passages of the nostrils. To all persons, whether affected with impediments of speech or not, I would say in the most earnest manner, acquire the habit of conducting the function of respiration always by the air-passages which lead from the nostrils; never by means of the open mouth. If the reader would wish to see minutely in detail all the good results which follow, and all the evils which are avoided, by acquiring this habit, I refer him again to the book I mentioned, lately published by Mr. George Catlin, the North American Indian traveller, entitled "The Breath of Life.”*

Seventhly. This rule that I am about to give follows almost as a necessary corollary from the last. All persons, but more especially the stammerer, should acquire the habit of keeping the upper surface of the tongue, when not speaking, closely applied to the roof of the mouth, the point of the tongue being immediately behind the upper front teeth. When the tongue is so placed it is in the best possible situation for beginning to speak or read, for voice is produced by a slight depression, and hence articulation is much facilitated. Keeping the tongue at the bottom of the mouth, instead of placing it in the proper position as just described, is, I can assure the stammerer, one of the worst habits possible for him, or any one affected with impediments of speech. Stammerers anxious to pronounce a word beginning with a lingual immediately endeavour to do so without applying the tongue to the roof of the mouth. This being impossible, they struggle in vain to speak, and are wholly incapable of the slightest articulation. After the tongue has been rightly placed, and a good inspiration taken in the proper way, it is very far from usual to perceive much difficulty after the first syllable has been well and carefully articulated. It may be truly said here, that when not deficient in breath, "c'est le premier pas qui coûte" with the stammerer or stutterer. Both may rest assured that it is perfectly impossible for them, or any one else, to articulate without strictly following out this direction, and therefore it is of the very utmost importance that it should be always borne in mind by those who have habitually any difficulty in articulation. The stammerer, stutterer, and every one affected with any kind of defective articulation, should make it a matter of the most scrupulous care when silent to keep the tongue completely and closely applied to the roof of the

* Trübner & Co.. London.

mouth; for when in this position, it is ready and able to perform all its functions most effectually, and with the greatest promptitude. If persons suffering from impediments of speech will only bear in mind this direction, they will spare themselves all those distressing spasmodic convulsions of the tongue, lips, and sometimes the whole countenance, which are almost as painful to the spectator to witness as they are to the sufferer to endure.

Eighthly. Let the patient who has any kind of difficulty or impediment in speech, most scrupulously avoid all hasty, careless slurring of words. He must give every syllable that is long its proper quantity, by dwelling on the vowel sound in it, and also avoid making any syllable which is short improperly long. Especially should he observe the great law of poise, and make every syllable that is heavy really so by the due weight or percussion of the voice on it, and let the corresponding reaction be equally perceptible on the syllable that is light. I refer the patient to what I have said already on the necessity of properly using the mechanism of the action and reaction of the larynx for thoroughly carrying out and duly maintaining this poise in all speaking and reading. Ninthly. I earnestly advise all persons with impediments of speech, whether confirmed stammerers and stutterers, or only just beginning to hesitate, to be very slow and deliberate in reading and speaking, especially at first. Among the large number of patients whom I have had under my care for the removal of all kinds of impediments and difficulties in articulation, I have met with but very few who did not habitually speak with painful rapidity, and at times almost breathless haste, until they are suddenly stopped in mid career of their impetuous speech by the impediment suddenly coming on. By a spasmodic effort, eventually they recover their power of articulation, and rattle on with their hurried words until they are once more arrested in the same way, in the very midst of a word, perhaps; and so they go on to the pain and distress of themselves and those whom they are addressing. In the life of Charles Kingsley, recently published, will be found a most sensible letter addressed to a young lady, who laboured under an impediment of speech, which concludes by telling her above all things to take care in reading and speaking (until the impediment is quite overcome) to be 66 SLOW-SLOW-SLOW. It is well known that the late Canon Kingsley in early life was a great sufferer from stammering, and was cured by the late Dr. Hunt.

Tenthly. Let the stammerer, in speaking, have the word he intends to use in his mind before he attempts to utter it with his mouth. In fact, the mind, in speaking, should always be trained to be in advance of the lips. No person should attempt to speak a single sentence until he knows thoroughly beforehand what it is that he intends to say, and the choice of words being mentally made, he should then pronounce them firmly and deliberately. Let the patient begin to acquire confidence by practising reading aloud first, then recitation from memory, and lastly, a short extempore discourse on some subject. Then let him repeat the same series of exercises in the same order to one or two friends, and as his confidence in himself increases, it would be desirable to increase the

number of his audience. By these means he will find his difficulties gradually disappear, and ease, fluency, and self-possession will take the place of hesitation, timidity, and self-distrust.

It is right to mention that Dr. Coën of Vienna, who has acquired a great Continental reputation for his successful treatment of stammering, stuttering, and other defects of speech, strongly advises the use of Ling's Swedish system of gymnastics as a most valuable accessory to all elocutionary treatment of the various causes which hinder fluency of speech; and in doing so he necessarily implies that the whole muscular system requires bracing. Dr. Shuldham also, in the last edition of his work on Stammering and its Treatment," states that he, too, makes use of the movement-cure, when it is specially indicated, and in addition advises his patients to take strong exercise in the open air.

In the advisability of such accessories being employed, I most thoroughly concur. It is impossible for the nervous and muscular systems not to be greatly strengthened by such exercises when gradually and judiciously carried out. Dr. Shuldham mentions also that great importance is given by Dr. Coën to elocutionary treatment of defects of speech, and that, as valuable accessories to such treatment, he makes use, when he deems it advisable, of electricity and the water-cure.

SUPPLEMENT TO LECTURE XIX.

The Functions of the Vocal and Speech Organs in the formation of all the various letters of the English alphabet, singly and in combination-Full Tables of Exercises for Practice, as applicable to Stammerers, Stutterers, and all persons suffering from any kind of Defective or Imperfect Articulation.

S an appendix to the forgeoing Lecture on impediments and defects of speech, I subjoin the following series of exercises on the various consonants and vowels, singly and in combination, selected from various sources, but chiefly from the large edition (1820) of the treatise on Elocution, by the late Mr. B. H. Smart, the daily practice of the pronunciation of which will be found most useful to persons labouring under defective articulation, and will contribute much to firmness and fluency of speech.

PRONUNCIATION.

As the following exercises are intended, not for acquiring the pronunciation of our language, but for improving it, the consonants are brought forward before the vowels, because the most usual defects of utterance may chiefly be traced to them. And as an alphabetical arrangement of consonants would not be accompanied with any advantage, the following order, which has been found a convenient one, is preferred: h, w, y, ng, s, and z, sh and its correspondent vocal, f and v, th and its correspondent vocal, l, m, n, r, þ, and b, k and g, t, and d. In reading the praxes on these sounds, the pupil must be careful to form each consonant with strong compressive force, and those formed with the voice should be made distinct from those formed with the breath. To know what sounds are represented, these two directions should be constantly in view:

1. The letter or letters denoting the sound exemplified, are in italic. 2. When a letter or letters denote the sound exemplified and something more, they are printed in capital.

The pronouncing of detached words may be so conducted as to be a very useful preparatory training of the ear and of the voice. As words unconnected in sense require no particular tone, the student will, if left to himself, sometimes adopt an upward, sometimes a downward inflection, according to the impulse of the moment; that is to say, if he read them in quick succession, the idea of continuation will induce him to pronounce each with a conjunctive inflection; if he read them slowly,

the pause after each will probably determine him to employ the disjunctive. Let it be his object to acquire the power of uttering the one or the other of these inflections at pleasure. This will, at first, be attended with no slight difficulty: though determined, perhaps, to use the downward inflection, the idea of continuation will prevail, and cause him to use the other in spite of himself: being sensible of his failure, he will make a second trial, and probably imagine because he has pronounced the word in a lower or softer tone, that he has altered the inflection: this, however, does not necessarily follow; for the same inflection may be pitched very high or very low, and it may be uttered very gently or very forcibly. To avoid these mistakes, he must, during some time, use the following form of a question as a test :-Did I say strange or strange? By this he will be instinctively impelled to utter the word, first, with an upward then with a downward slide, and to know, by comparison, in which manner he had previously uttered it. After some time the ear will become familiar with the slides, and the test may be laid aside. Having them now entirely at command, he must exercise his voice in carrying them, as far as possible, from one extreme to the other, something in the manner of a singer running the gamut from low to high, and high to low. Let him also vary their motion, making them sometimes rapid and sometimes slow. Such an exercise on detached words will probably be thought a little ridiculous, but the student may rest confident of its utility. It will not only give him a clear feeling of the kind of tones he ought to use, but will add flexibility to his voice, and remove from it any unpleasant monotony; for what is called a monotonous voice, is not, in fact, a voice that never gets above or below one musical key, but one which is incapable of taking a sufficient compass in its inflections.

The same exercises may be made to serve another purpose, namely, the gradual training of the speaker to the due preservation of rhythmus. Lists of unconnected words, in pronouncing which there can be no danger of sacrificing sense to sound, seem to offer the best introduction to systematic practice on this subject; and accordingly, the lists are arranged for this purpose among others, by keeping together, as much as possible, words of similar accentuation. In pronouncing these, the returns of accent will be regular, and the student is desired to mark each return by beating time with his hand, observing to make a pause of equal duration between each word, regulated by the beating of the hand. At the end of the praxis on each consonant, an exercise on Interjunction is given.

h.

The sound denoted by this letter consists merely in a forcible expulsion of the breath. In the following exercise, it is judged advisable to intermingle words in which the sound is not required with others that demand it, that the pupil may become secure both in the use of it and in the omission. In some words is quite silent; namely, in heir, honest, honour, hour, and all the derivatives. These will be known by the letter not being in italic. In a few words, namely, those in which letter o follows wh, the sound generally denoted by h alone is denoted by the two letters wh, which will be known by both letters being in italic. If the w is not in italic, it must have its