HARDWICK&S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



269 



slightest sign of alarm. A short time after they 

 would be found dead. It is my firm conviction, and 

 I state it not without many obsetvations and ex- 

 periments, that the majority of the Entomostraca 

 are primarily carnivorous, and only necessity, the 

 mother of invention, as our copy-books used to tell 

 us, forces them to a vegetable diet. 



STAMMERING AND STUTTERING. 



AT a recent meeting of the Manchester Elocu- 

 tionists' Association, Mr. J. Spence Hodgson, 

 the president, spoke of stammering, which, he said, 

 belonged to civilisation, on the testimony of Catlin 

 among the Indians of North America, and Livingstone 

 and Cameron in Africa, who stated that it was un- 

 known . in uncivilised nations. In Europe peoples 

 like the Spaniards and Italians who possessed an 

 easy-flowing musical speech, did not stammer, while 

 in Germany stammering was frequent. Indeed in 

 all the Teutonic languages there were cognate words 

 to the Anglo-Saxon "stamer." The mention of 

 stammering went far back in literature. It was found 

 three times in the book of Isaiah. Shakespeare in 

 " As You Like It," made Rosalind desire that Celia 

 could stammer. Dryden spoke of " stammering 

 tongues and staggerirjg feet;" Cowper of " children 

 stammering out a syllable." The habit was more 

 common in men than in women, in the proportion of 

 three men to one woman. In the population of 

 Great Britain the proportion of stammerers was three 

 in 1000, and in the United States five in 1000, which 

 latter number was nearly three times greater than 

 that of the blind, deaf, and dumb as given in the 

 official Census. Stammering and stuttering were 

 thought by many to be one and the same thing. 

 There was this difference, that the former had re- 

 lation to vowel sounds and the latter to consonants 

 in connection with vowels. Stammering was more 

 often due to defective formation of the pharynx, 

 palate, or tongue, and was unassociated with faulty 

 muscular movements, while stuttering was due rather 

 to spasmodic muscular contractions and seldom to 

 defects in organs of speech. A stutterer would be 

 influenced for the worse if looked at or by anything 

 that made him think of his defect, or even if he heard 

 another stutter. The habit began about the fifth 

 year and increased to the tenth. Children suffered 

 considerably at school from the habit of stammering, 

 which mostly arose from physical or nervous weak- 

 ness, aggravated by the fear of ridicule and the dread 

 of observation, and particularly by being made to 

 read aloud before other children. Teachers should 

 avoid letting such a child read before the class (a 

 practice very seldom done), but should allow it to 

 read by itself to an older scholar, or let it sing-song 

 away in an empty class-room. The most inveterate 

 stutterer in the class when he (the speaker) was at 



school, could read straight along when in a room by 

 himself. The boy grew entirely free from it as he 

 became a man. The causes of stammering and 

 stuttering were mainly functional and not organic. 

 Though there might in some cases be primary and 

 removable causes in the defective organization of 

 lips, palate, tonsils, and uvula, yet the principal 

 causes were a want of control of the organs of breath- 

 ing, or an affection of the nerves and a low tone in 

 the system. Thus a stammerer would speak better 

 in cold weather and when in good health, and after 

 easy exercise in the open air. As to the cure 

 of the habit, the teacher should first see that the 

 pupil breathed correctly through the natural passage, 

 the nose ; that the lungs be thoroughly filled with 

 air by regular inhalation and emptied under proper 

 control during speech, and that no air escape before 

 vocalization. Articulation should be particularly 

 attended to. It should be begun in a whisper, 

 carried forward in a low voice, sometimes in a drawl, 

 then in a sing-song intonation with every modula- 

 tion — all very slowly, easily, and distinctly. Exercises 

 should be given on the most difficult consonants and 

 sounds, and great patience must be exercised till the 

 pupil mastered them. Care should be taken that 

 muscles be not twitched or used that were not 

 wanted in speaking. It was a help to the pupil if 

 the teacher read aloud with him, the two voices 

 being in the same key, so that the rate and easy flow 

 of sound might be regulated. Passages with long- 

 sounding vowels, as in "Paradise Lost," would be 

 found easier than dramatic pieces with quick con- 

 versations, and reading from the Psalms better still. 



THE CLOUDED YELLOW. 



PROBABLY none of your readers will doubt the 

 soundness of Mr. Creaghe-Haward's opinion, 

 that the recent burst of Clouded Yellows over England 

 must have been produced by the hibernated speci- 

 mens, of which he had observed a number during the 

 spring months. I believe that similar bursts will 

 generally prove, on investigation, to have been 

 similarly heralded. For instance, in 1876, this 

 butterfly occurred abundantly over a considerable 

 part of Ireland, including the county Wexford. It 

 had before that year been totally unknown to me, 

 and I well remember the pleasure afforded me by the 

 first sight of one of these golden beauties, as he 

 scudded" by me at a pace which made the thought of 

 pursuit ridiculous. This was towards the end of 

 May. I saw several other specimens in June ; then 

 they ceased to appear, until about the beginning of 

 August, the butterfly suddenly came out in such 

 profusion, that one might have captured almost any 

 number, merely by walking through the clover-fields, 

 and picking them up between the finger and thumb. 

 I could not doubt that these were descendants of the 



