254 Dr. Marshall Hall on Stammering. 



weight, or making any straining exertion ; it is that also, by 

 the repeated shutting of which, a person divides the sound in 

 pronouncing several times, in distinct and rapid succession, 

 any vowel, as o, o, o, o. Now the glottis, during common 

 speech, need never be closed, and a stutterer is instantly cured, 

 if, by having his attention properly directed to it, he can keep 

 it open. Had the edges or thin lips of the glottis been visible, 

 like the external lips of the mouth, the nature of stuttering 

 would not so long have remained a mystery, and the effort 

 necessary to the cure would have forced itself upon the atten- 

 tion of the most careless observer ; but because hidden, and 

 professional men had not detected in how far they were con- 

 cerned, and the patient himself had only a vague feeling of 

 some difficulty, which, after straining, grimace, gesticulation, 

 and sometimes almost general convulsion of the body, gave 

 way, the uncertainty with respect to the subject has remained. 

 Even many persons, who by attention and much labour had 

 overcome the defect in themselves, as Demosthenes did, have 

 not been able to describe to others the nature of their efforts, 

 so as to ensure imitation ; and the author doubts much whether 

 the quacks who have succeeded in relieving many cases, but in 

 many also have failed, or have given only temporary relief, 

 really understood what precise end in the action of the organs 

 their imperfect directions were accomplishing. 



* Now a stutterer, understanding of anatomy only what is 

 stated above, will comprehend what he is to aim at, by being 

 further told, that when any sound is continuing, as when he is 

 humming a single note or a tune, the glottis is necessarily open, 

 and, therefore, that when he chooses to begin pronouncing or 

 droning any simple sound, as the e of the English word berry 

 (to do which at once no stutterer has difficulty), he thereby 

 opens the glottis, and renders the pronunciation of any other 

 sound easy. If, then, in speaking or reading, he joins his 

 words together, as if each phrase formed but one long word, 

 or nearly as a person joins them in singing (and this may be 

 done without its being at all noted as a peculiarity of speech, 

 for all persons do it more or less in their ordinary conversa- 

 tion), the voice never stops, the glottis never closes, and there 

 is of course no stutter, The author has given this explanation 



