256 Dr. Marshall Hall on Stammering. 



of which he knows not the reason, and which he cannot modify 

 to the peculiarities of other cases. The same view of the 

 subject explains why the speech of a stutterer has been cor- 

 rectly compared to the escape of liquid from a bottle with a 

 long narrow neck, coming " either as a hurried gush or not 

 at all :" for when the glottis is once opened, and the stutterer 

 feels that he has the power of utterance, he is glad to hurry 

 out as many words as he can, before the interruption again 

 occurs.' 



This view of the subject is so far from being correct, that it 

 is quite plain that it is only in the articulation of certain letters, 

 that expiration is interrupted, and, even in this case, the 

 interruption is not in the larynx, the organ of voice, but in some 

 part of the mouth, or organ of speech. It will assist us in the 

 determination of the question, to take a review of the influence 

 which the natural articulation has upon respiration, or rather 

 upon expiration. It may be ascertained, by the simplest expe- 

 riment, that in the pronunciation of the short word BAT, we 

 adopt a mechanism, by which not only the different letters are 

 formed, but the respiration is twice completely arrested ; and 

 that, in the pronounciation of the equally short word FAN, we 

 first interrupt the flow of the air through the nostrils, whilst it 

 is forced between the teeth and lower lip, and then intercept 

 the course of the air through the mouth, whilst we allow it to 

 pass only through the nostrils. 



It is on their influence on the respiration, that I formed the 

 division and arrangement of the consonants, published in the 

 nineteenth volume of this Journal ; their sub-division was 

 founded on the respective mode or mechanism of their enun- 

 ciation. I divided them 



1. Into those, in the articulation of which both the mouth 

 and the nostrils are closed, and the respiration, of course, com- 

 pletely arrested : 



2. Into those, in the enunciation of which the nostrils are 

 closed, but the mouth left more or less open, for the exit of the 

 air, which is compressed, but not interrupted, in its expiration : 



3. Into those, not requiring even the nostrils to be closed, 

 and in the enunciation of which the air is still less compressed 

 in its course from the lungs : and, 



