e mistakes of those who committed them.

A lack of thoroughness marked the later attempts to cure stammering.
One method was based, for instance, solely upon correct breathing.
There is no doubt that correct breathing is very vital both to the
stammerer and the non-stammerer, if they are to speak fluently and
well. But breath-control does not even begin to solve the problem of
curing stammering. It is but an element, and a small element, in the
proper articulation of words. And however well this plan of
breath-control might have succeeded, it could never have succeeded in
really curing stuttering and stammering.

Most of these ill-advised efforts and half-baked methods sprang up, not
as a result of sound knowledge but rather as a result of the lack of
it. In fact, looking back at the manner in which the stammerer was
treated for stammering under these methods, we can see now that nothing
but the most profound ignorance of the fundamental principles
underlying the art of speaking could have made it possible for these
misguided instructors to pass out as science the jargon and hodge-podge
which they did try to pass off as scientific knowledge. The absurdities
propounded in the name of stammering cures were too numerous even to
enumerate in this volume.

SPEECH PRINCIPLES FUNDAMENTAL: Back of every spoken word, whether that
word be French, English, Italian, or any other language, are the
unchangeable principles of speech. These principles of speech are
fundamental. They do not change basically nor do they vary in the
individual. When you speak correctly, you do so as a result of
following the correct principles of speech. I speak correctly by the
same method as you. And when you speak incorrectly, or when you stutter
or stammer, you do so because you have violated one or more of these
fundamental principles. Any other person who stammers or stutters as
you do, violates the same principles and requires the same method of
correction as yourself. The severity of your case depends upon how many
of the principles of speech you violate. A diagnosis will determine
this--and therefore what is necessary to be done to bring about perfect
speech. The number of speech violations to be corrected will also
determine to a certain extent the time required for correction.

SPEECH DEFINED: Speech, in all the diversities of tongues and dialects,
consists of but a small number of articulated elementary sounds. These
are produced by the ag