f--a
fallacy greater than which there is none.

Stuttering and stammering are destructive maladies. They tear down both
body and mind but they have not the slightest power to build up. And
until a strong mental and physical structure has been built up in place
of the weakened structure (which results in stammering and stuttering)
a cure is out of the question.

CHAPTER V

THE PROGRESSIVE TENDENCY

The spell of intense recurrence of either stammering or stuttering
which follows a period of improvement, often marks the period of
transition from one stage of the disorder into the next and more
serious stage. This transition, however, may not be a conscious
process--that is, the sufferer may not in any way be informed of the
fact that he is passing into a more serious stage of his trouble save
that after the transition has taken place, he may find himself a
chronic or constant stammerer and in a nervous and mental condition
much more acute than ever before.

Dr. Alexander Melville Bell (father of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor
of the telephone), who, before his death, was a speech expert of
unquestioned repute, discovered this condition many years ago and in
his work PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH speaks of it as follows (page 234):

"Often the transition from simple to more complicated forms of
difficulty is so rapid, that it cannot be traced or anticipated.
Perhaps some slight ailment may imperceptibly introduce the higher
impediment or some evil example may draw the ill-mastered utterance at
once into the vortex of the difficulty."

This Progressive Tendency, which we shall hereafter call the
Progressive Character of the trouble in order to distinguish it from
the Intermittent Tendency, is present in more than 98 per cent, of the
cases of stammering and stuttering which I have examined and diagnosed.

True, there are many cases, the apparent or manifest tendencies of
which do not indicate that the disorder is becoming more serious, but
nevertheless this condition is no indication that the trouble is not
busily at work tearing out the foundation of mental and bodily
perfection.

SUCCESSIVE STAGES: Stuttering may be conveniently divided into four
stages, by which its progress may be measured. These may be designated
in their order as:

1--Simple Phase
2--Advanced Phase
3--Mental Phase
4--Compound Phase

The progress of the disorder is sure. Take the case of a child eight
years of age who ha