n determining the proper
methods for the cure of stuttering and stammering, I know of no
suggestion better than that offered by Alexander Melville Bell, who
says:

"The rational, as it is experimentally the successful method of
procedure, is first to study the standard of correct articulation (NOT
the varieties of imperfect utterance) and then not to go from one
extreme to another, but at every step to compare the defective with the
perfect mode of speech and so infallibly to ascertain the amount, the
kind and the source of the error."

We have already done that: We have located the cause of the trouble. We
not only know that stammering is caused by a lack of co-ordination
between the brain and the muscles of speech, but we know the things
which may bring about the lack of co-ordination. Now, how to cure?
Simply remove the cause. Re-establish normal co-ordination between the
brain and the muscles of speech. Restore normal brain control over the
speech organs. Make these organs respond freely, naturally and promptly
to the brain messages.

That sounds simple. But if it is as simple as it sounds, why is it that
so many in the past have failed to cure stammering and stuttering? Why
have so many so-called methods of cure passed into the discard? The
answer is, they were based on the wrong foundation. They struck at the
effects and not at the cause of the trouble. And as a result, the
methods failed.

These so-called methods have aimed at many different effects. One
method, for instance, had as its theory that if you could cure the
nervousness, the stammering would magically disappear. The unfortunate
sufferer was doped with vile-tasting bitters and nerve medicines,
so-called, in the hope that his nervous system would respond to
treatment. But the nerves could not be quieted and the nervous system
built up until the cause of the nervousness--which was stammering--was
removed.

There was a time, too, and it has not been so long ago, when the craze
was on for using surgery as a cure-all for stammering. Terrible
butchery was performed in the name of surgery--the patient's tongue
sometimes being slitted or notched, and other foolish and cruel
subterfuges improvised in an effort to cure the stammering. Needless to
say, there was no cure found in such methods. There is no chance of
curing a mental defect by slitting the tongue and the absurdities of
that "butchering period" which have now passed away, are numbered among
th