The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-28 00:00:00

INFALLIBLE CURE OF STUTTERING.

We extract the following from Dr. Arnott's
work upon the Elements of Physics, the first
part of the second volume of which has just
made its appearance. It is perhaps the most
valuable, and at the same time most simple, dis-
covery that has been made for many years in
Medical Physics :
" The most common case of stuttering, how,
ever, is not, as has been almost univerolly b -
lieved, where the individual has a difficulty in
respect to some particular letter or articulation,
by the disobedience, to the will or power of as-
sociation, of the parts of the mouth that should
form it, but where the spasmodic interruption
occurs altogether behind or beyond the mouth,
viz. in the glottis, so as to affect all the articu-
lations equally. To a person ignorant of ana-
tomy, and therefore knowing not what or where
the glottis is, it may be sufficient explanation to
say, that it is the slit or narrow opening at the
top of the windpipe, by which the air passes
to and from the lungs—being situated just be-
hind the root of the tongue. It is that which is
felt to close suddenly in the hiccup, arresting
the ingress of air, and that which closes, to
opfrevapersonentthe liftingegress o
a of
airvy from
any straining exertion ; it is that also,
rZlij,litt the
or cheat
ma-
by the repeated shutting of which, a person.
divides the sound in pronouncing several tunes,
in distinct and rapid succession, any vowel, as
o, o, o, o. Now the glottis during common
speech need never be closed, and a stutterer is in-
stantly cured if, by having his attention properly
directed to it, he can keep it open. Had the
edges or thin lips of the glottis been visible, like
the external lips of the mouth, the nature of stut--
tering would not so long have remained a mys-
tery, and the effort necessary to the cure would
have forced itself upon the attention of the most
careless observer ; but because hidden, and pro-
fessional men had not detected in how far they
were concerned, and the patient himself had only
a vague feeling of some difficulty, which, after
straining, grimace, gesticulation, and sometimes
almost general convulsion of the body, gave Way?
the uncertainty with respect to the subject has
remained. Even many persons who by. atten-
tion and much labour had overcome the defect
in themselves, as Demosthenes did, have not
been able to describe to others the nature of their
efforts, so as to insure imitation ; and the author
doubts much whether the quacks who have suc-
ceeded in relieving many cases, but in many also
have failed, or have given only temporary rellot,
really understood what precise end in the action
of the organs their imperfect directions were
ac-
complishing.
" Now a stutterer, understanding of anatomy
only what is stated above, will comprehend what
he is to aim at, by being farther told, that when
any sound is continuing, as when lie is hum-
ming a single note or a tune, the glottis is ne-
cessarily open, and that therefore when lie
chooses to begin pronouncing or droning ally
simple sound, as the c of.the English word berm/
(to do which at once no stutterer has difficulty),
he thereby opens the glottis, and renders tim
pronunciation of any other sound easy. If, then,
in speaking or reading, he joins his words tom
gether, as if each phrase formed but one ions
word, or nearly as a person joins them in singing
(and this may be done without its being at all
noted as a peculiarity of speech, for all persons
do it more or less in their ordinary conversation)
the voice never stops, the glottis never closes,
and there is of course no stutter. The author
has given this explanation or lesson, with an
example to a person, who before would have re-
quired half an hour to read a page, but who im-
mediately afterwards read it almost as smoothly
as was possible for any one to do : and who then,
on transferring the lesson to the speech, by con-
tinned practice and attention, obtained the same
facility with respect to it. There are many per-
sons not accounted peculiar in their speech,who in
seeking words to:express themsclves,often rest long
between them on the simple sound of e mentioned
above, saying,for instance, hesitatingly," e I e
think . . . . you may,"—the sound never ceasing
until the end of the phrase, however long the
person may require to pronounce it. Now a
stutterer, who to open his glottis at the begin-
ning of a phrase, or to open it in the middle
after any interruption, uses such a sound, would
not even at first be more remarkable than a
drawling speaker, and he would only require to
drawl for a little while, until practice facilitated
his command of the other sounds. Although
producing the simple sound which we call the c
of berry, or the French words de or pie, is a
means of opening the glottis, which by stutterers
is found very generally to answer, there are many
cases in which other means are more suitable, as
the intelligent preceptor soon discovers. Were
it possible to divide the nerves of the muscles
winch close the glottis, without at the same time
destroying the faculty of producing voice, such
an operation would be the most immediate and
certain cure of stuttering ; and the loss of the fa-
culty of closing the glottis would be of no mo-
ment.

" The view given above of the nature of stut-
tering and its cure, explains the following facts,
which to many persons have hitherto appeared
extraordinary. Stutterers often can sing well,
and without the least interruption—for the tune
being continued, the glottis does not close.
Many stutterers can also read poetry well, or any
declamatory composition, in which the uninter-
rupted tone is almost as remarkable as in sing-
ing. The cause of stuttering being so simple
as above described, one rule given and explained
may, in certain cases, instantly cure the defect,
however aggravated, as has been observed in not
a few instances ; and this explains also why an
ignorant pretender may occasionally succeed in
curing, by giving a rule 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 stut-
terer has been correctly compared to the escape
of a 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 stut-
terer 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.
Should the author's future experience enable
him to simplify or render more complete the
views of the nature and cure of stuttering, which
hine
ever la s giveny above,
variety
no vf e so
case, a
hes tNovtrot
facilitate
fail tth cure
oe
pub-
lish his remarks."

DORSET.--The herring fishery up to this
date disappoints the hopes of our fishermen on the south
coast of this county. Smuggling, we are gratified to learn,
is at a lower ebb than was ever remembered on our southern
coast,-..,Plymouth Journal. .