June 13, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



899 



child the problem is almost entirely an edu- 

 cational one : the introduction of schemes 

 of flexible grading; of fast, slow and nor- 

 mal sections, and of supernormal classes; 

 providing special opportunities for doing 

 specialized work, and a special pedagogy, 

 which should probably be as largely nega- 

 tive as positive. If there is any one child 

 in our scheme of public education which 

 has been neglected more than any other, it 

 is the child of unusual talents. A nation 

 can do no higher duty by its subjects than 

 to provide those conditions which will 

 rescue its incipient geniuses from the dead- 

 level of enforced mediocrity. 



IV. Speech defectives, particularly the 

 two and one half per cent, (approxi- 

 mately) of stutterers and lispers who en- 

 cumber our classes. In few fields of scien- 

 tific research is it possible to find such as- 

 tonishing diversity of so-called expert 

 opinion as on the question of the causation 

 of stuttering (or stammering). It is 

 claimed to be a gastric, pneumogastrie, 

 lung, throat, lip, brain, hypoplastic, ner- 

 vous and mental disorder. It is said to be 

 a form of epilepsy, a form of hysteria, and 

 a form of mental strife, or repression, be- 

 tween latent and manifest mental contents. 

 Moreover, few writers show such a con- 

 summate genius for self-contradiction as 

 writers on stuttering. Before me lies a re- 

 print of a recent dissertation on the "Edu- 

 cational Treatment of Stuttering Chil- 

 dren." The writer begins by saying that 

 stuttering is a "pathological condition," 

 a disease, and that therefore its treatment 

 belongs to a specialist on diseases. The 

 disease appears, however, on the second 

 page to be merely "a purely functional 

 neurosis," while on the last page the 

 trouble is nothing more than a "mental 

 one," caused by influences acting on the 

 mind. As a matter of fact, the treatment 

 which the writer recommends is through 



and through educational and largely psy- 

 chological. It consists of certain physical 

 exercises, designed not so much to 

 strengthen certain organs as to win the pa- 

 tient's interest and restore his self-confi- 

 dence; and certain psychotherapeutic and 

 hypnotic exercises. 



Waiving for the time being the nature 

 of the cause, we can agree on one thing; 

 namely, that the methods of treating stut- 

 tering (and lisping) which have been 

 proved effective are almost exclusively edu- 

 cational. Many of the neurotic sjTnptoms 

 found in the stutterer are the results of 

 mental tension and will disappear with the 

 correction of the stuttering. 



V. Incipient psychotics, or children who 

 show developmental symptoms of mental 

 disorders or mental alienation. Here we 

 meet with the same controversy between 

 the advocates, on the one hand, of a soma- 

 togenic theory, and, on the other hand, of 

 a psychogenic theory of causation. While 

 it must be admitted that many of the psy- 

 choses are certainly organic, others almost 

 as certainly are functional and are pro- 

 duced by idiogenic factors (a view enter- 

 tained by such well-known psychiatrists as 

 Meyer, Freud, Janet, Dubois, Jones, 

 Prince). Now, irrespective of whether the 

 cause is chiefly physical or mental, it is 

 being recognized by a number of the lead- 

 ing present-day psychiatrists that drug 

 treatment for the majority of the insane, 

 whether juvenile or adult, is secondary to 

 the educational treatment. Instead of 

 merely prescribing physical hygiene for the 

 insane, leading alienists are now prescrib- 

 ing mental hygiene. The cure is being con- 

 ceived in terms of a process of reeducation. 

 Moreover, so far as concerns the mentally 

 unstable child in the schools, the chief re- 

 liance is obviously on hygienic and educa- 

 tional guidance. 



B. Cases in which the physical devia- 



