safe and ever-present pilot through the sea that
to the captain of this craft is as uncharted as the route to the Indies
in Columbus' day.

The revolution now taking place in both the mental and bodily processes
results hi a lack of stability--an "unsettledness" that manifests
itself in restlessness, nervousness, self-consciousness or morbidness,
taking perhaps the form of a persistent melancholia or desire to be
alone.

At this time in the life of the boy or girl, the possibilities for
stuttering or stammering to secure a firm hold on their muscular and
nervous system are very great. Next to the age of second dentition,
children at the age of puberty are most susceptible to stammering or
stuttering.

During adolescence, the annual rate of growth in height, weight and
strength is increased and often doubled or more. The power of the
diseases peculiar to childhood abates and the liability to the far more
numerous diseases of maturity begins, so that with the liability to
both it is not strange that this period is marked at the same time by
increased morbidity.

The significant fact about stuttering in children as far as it relates
to the period of adolescence, is that this stage marks the most
pronounced susceptibility to the malady as well as the time during
which it may most quickly pass into the chronic stage. Examinations
show that the largest percentage of stutterers among boys was at the
ages of eight, thirteen and sixteen, while the largest percentage among
girls was at the ages of seven, twelve and sixteen--the earlier age of
severity in girls being explained by the fact that the girl reaches a
given state of maturity more quickly than a boy.

Parents of stammering or stuttering children between the ages of twelve
and twenty, may well note with alarm the increasing nervousness, the
hyper-sensitive feelings, the overpowering self-consciousness and the
morbid tendencies which mark a state of mental depression, brooding and
worry over troubles both real and fancied.

PERIOD OF MOST FREQUENT SUICIDE: Statistics gathered over a period of
years indicate that the cases of suicide of stammering children occur
at this time with greater frequency than at any other. Rarely has a
case been found where a child has attempted to take his life before the
age of 12 and seldom after the age of 20.

At frequent intervals there can be found in any of the large papers, a
very brief note of the suicide of a child who had foun