Physiology of Speech. .16 



series of years, by any person after a certain age. The same ob- 

 servation applies to the pronunciation of a foreign language. It 

 must be acquired early, or it will never be acquired at all. The 

 French emigrants, who left their native country rather late in 

 life, never acquired the pronunciation of our language, even so 

 as to be readily understood. It is in infancy too, that the faculty 

 of imitation, by which the mechanism of articulation is, in fact, 

 principally, if not entirely, caught, exists in its greatest degree of 

 excellency. 



2. It has been observed, in regard to stammerers', or those who 

 have a defective utterance, that they can sing, or even read, 

 without hesitation, although they cannot speak. What is the 

 rationale of this fact ? I think it will be found to depend on the 

 following principle. Continuous muscular action is far more 

 easily effected than that which is interrupted. This principle 

 is even general in physiology. It has been remarked, that a 

 drunken man, or a person affected with that disorder termed 

 St. Vitus's Dance, can run, though he cannot walk, or stand still*. 

 In the same manner, a stammerer can sing, which is continuous 

 motion, although he cannot speak, which is interrupted. 



Continued muscular motion is also attended with less fatigue 

 than that which is interrupted ; and this is particularly observed 

 in regard to speech. It is on this account, that there is a ten- 

 dency in those who speak much in public to acquire a sort of con- 

 tinued sing-song mode of delivery, which it requires good taste and 

 constant exertion to correct. It is on this account, too, that 

 those who cry in the streets, actually acquire a sort of tune, or 

 cry, as it is termed ; the continued action of the muscles of 

 speech being so much more easy than the interrupted. The same 

 is constantly observed in children, on their first attempts to read. 



Let a stammerer, then, observe this rule : — Always to speak 

 in a continued or flowing manner, avoiding carefully all positive 

 interruption in his speech ; and if he cannot effect his purpose in 

 this manner, let him even half sing what he says, until he shall, 



• Heberdeni, Com. p. 98. 



