The mechanism of many of our habitual
functions cannot be traced step by step; they
are instinctively performed. The instinct, in
its perfection, or its defect, renders a man
adroit, or clumsy; it makes the dancer follow,
or break, the measure of the music; it causes
the vocalist to sing in tune, or out of tune;
it constitutes the great artist, the grand
executive genius. From it are derived grace, or
ungracefulness, expression, or vacancy of
countenance; it presides also over the
innumerable combinations of muscular motion
necessary to form the voice and speech. Some
latent derangement of the instinctive
mechanism of speech, is the cause of stammering;
of that there can be little doubt. Any
further explanation of its origin may be looked
upon as illusory.

Several systems of cure have enjoyed in
their turn a temporary vogue. Mrs. Leigh,
of New York, having observed that at the
moment when the stammerer hesitates, his
tongue is placed at the bottom of his mouth,
instead of touching the palate, which is its
usual position with persons who speak without
hesitating, conceived the notion that, by
making the patient raise the tip of his tongue
and apply it to the palate, the infirmity might
be remedied. She trained her first pupil to
speak in this way, expressly forbidding him
to practise any other mode of utterance; and,
gradually conforming his pronunciation to its
natural type, she obtained a complete
success. In consequence, she founded at New
York an institution for the cure of
stammering: from which, between eighteen
hundred and twenty-five and eighteen
hundred and thirty, she is said to have turned
out more than a hundred and fifty cures.
The time required for a complete reformation
was variable; its duration depended
less on the intensity of the infirmity than
on the energy of the patient's character.
The longest treatment did not last more than
six weeks; it was not unusual to find it
terminated in a few days, or even in a few hours.
The last was the case, when the patient, fully
persuaded that by raising his tongue the difficulty
would be overcome, felt confidence in
the discipline; and being assured that, thus,
he would cease from stammering, was cured
on the spot. Desirous of spreading her
method in Europe, Mrs. Leigh confided it,
under secresy, to M. Malbouche, who
introduced it, at first, into the Low Countries.
Soon afterwards, Dr. Hart effected several
cures in England, by pursuing her plan. On
M. Malbouche's arrival in Paris, the Academy
of Sciences instructed Magendie to examine
and report upon the system. M. Malbouche
had a conference with his learned judges, and
cured in their presence several stammering
patients, and, among others, two selected
by themselves. It appears that the great
defect of the means adopted by Mrs. Leigh is,
that they are not applicable to all cases
indiscriminately.

Another psellismologist, M. Colombat,
contended that rhythm is an efficacious agent for
eradicating stammering; he beat time, as it
were, to every syllable, with his finger and
thumb. In six years, Colomobat cured two
hundred and thirty-two out of three
hundred patients. Another professor caused his
pupils to make violent movements with their
arms, in accompaniment to every sound. It
is worthy of remark that both rhythm, and
violent muscular exercise, are means of
controlling the respiration.

The balbutistic literature of the current
year demonstrates the existence of rival
candidates for fame far more clearly than it
explains or establishes their method. A well-
printed pamphlet tells us that human speech
requires two separate sets of volitions, one
directed to the larynx for the production of
sounds, the other to the mouth for their
temporary obstruction, or pronunciation, by which
probably articulation is meant. The volition
to sound a syllable must, therefore, always
precede the volition to pronounce it, for without
sound there can be no pronunciation. On
the perfect accord between these two sets of
volitions must depend the dexterity of the
muscular actions concerned in pronunciation;
and under whatever peculiarity of effort
stammering may exhibit itself, it will always be
found accompanied, or characterised, by this
want of accord between the organs of sound
and the organs of pronunciation, inducing an
anticipatory effort to pronounce without a
sound.

It is not unreasonable that the balbutist
should require to superintend the means of
cure personally, and that he should advise
the patient to come and reside beneath his
roof. His suggestion, too, is natural: that
although the houses of married physicians
will be found hereafter to afford most excellent
asylums for children amongst the upper
classes, such a resource cannot be calculated
on, for obvious reasons, for the middle and
lower classes; for them he hopes that private
benevolence may yet supply a want of the
kind, and that an asylum for the cure of
stammering children may soon be organised.
To such a great national charity he would
most freely give his gratuitous services.
Meanwhile he considers unnecessary to enter
"here" upon the medical means proper to
employ for subduing the vascular erythism of
the vessels of the brain and spinal cord, and
rousing the energy of the organic nervous
system. Suffice it to know that the deranged
volition will be best regulated by exercising
the muscles of sound and pronunciation in a
manner difficult to describe, although that
exercise is very simple, and leads to greater
dexterity in the compound actions affecting
speech. We are curious for more precise
details, but must submit to the same restraints
as the stammerer under correction, who, as
he advances, is allowed gradually to
foreshadow, as it were, his future pronunciatory