d life too much
of a burden for him to bear and who, as a consequence, fell to brooding
over his troubles and as the easiest way out of them, took his own
life. A Chicago boy attempted suicide by inhaling gas, although he was
discovered before it was too late. Another took his own life by
shooting himself with a revolver given him some years ago as a birthday
present; still another took poison as the easiest way out of his
humiliation, embarrassment and despair.

The average age of these boys was about 16 1/2 years, which marks a
period of intense self-consciousness and extreme sensitiveness of the
youth to ridicule and disgrace.

TENDENCY TO RAPID PROGRESS: The condition of the young person between
the ages of 12 and 20 can hardly be considered to be normal in any way.
The physical processes are un-normal and are undergoing a change, and
the mental faculties, too, are un-normal, overwhelmed as they are with
new emotions and sensations. The nervous condition is marked by a much
higher nervous irritability, which contributes to a condition most
favorable for the rapid progress of the speech disorder, always easily
aggravated by a subnormal physical, mental or nervous condition. Cases
where the Intermittent Tendency is a pronounced characteristic are
liable at this period to find the alternate periods of relief and
recurrence to be more frequent than ever before and to note a marked
tendency of their trouble to recur with constantly increasing
malignancy. Cases that at the age of 11 or 12, for instance, might have
been said to have been in an incipient state, have commonly been known
at this age to pass through the successive intermediate stages of the
trouble and become of a deep-seated and chronic nature in a
surprisingly short period of time.

In some cases where the transition from a simple to the complex form of
the difficulty takes place at this age, it is found that the disorder
has passed beyond the curable stage, in which case, of course, nothing
is left to the unfortunate stammerer but the prospects of a life of
untold misery and torture, deprived of companionship, ostracized from
society and debarred from participation in either business or the
professions.

CHANCES OF OUTGROWING: The chances for outgrowing a speech disorder at
this age are considerably less than at any other time in the previous
life of the individual. The unbalanced general condition tends to make
the stammerer more susceptible instead o