318 SIR CHARLES BELL ON THE ORGANS OF THE HUMAN VOICE, 
breath by the elevated chest, are accomplished and continue uninterruptedly. 
Neither does he experience any distress in pronouncing the vowels and liquid 
consonants, for the same reason: and if he study to commence his speech 
with a vowel sound, he can generally add to the vibration already begun, the 
proper action of the pharynx. Another necessary combination distresses a 
person who stutters, I mean the actions of the expiratory muscles and those of 
the throat. He expels the breath so much in his attempt at utterance, that to 
produce a sound at all, the ribs must be forcibly compressed. To remove this 
necessity, if he be made to fill his lungs and elevate the shoulders, the elas- 
ticity of the compages of the chest will come into play so as to expel the breath 
without effort, and he will speak with comparative facility and comfort. Ac- 
cordingly, to commence speaking with the chest fully inflated, to pitch the 
voice properly, to keep a measured time in speaking, and to raise the voice on 
a liquid letter or vowel, are some of the common means recommended for the 
cure of stuttering; and they are certainly those which tend to overcome the 
difficulty in combining the organs of speech when the defect arises from no 
disorder or malformation of these organs taken separately. 
I have only further to hope that, by the interest which this subject is capable 
of exciting, I may be indulged in a subsequent attempt to unravel the nerves 
of the neck and throat. 
