ozens which have come under my observation in twenty-eight years'
experience.

One stammerer explains his difficulty as follows: "I find I am unable
to talk and do something else at the same time. For instance, I have
difficulty in talking while dancing, while at the table or while
listening to music. If, for instance, I wish to talk to any one while
the Victrola is being played, I unconsciously cut it off." This is a
case where the stammerer finds that all of his faculties must be
concentrated upon a supreme effort to speak before this becomes
possible. In other words, he has not yet learned to control
sufficiently the different parts of his body so that they may act
independently. This might be termed a lack of independent co-ordination.

In the case of another young man, he found himself unable to control
the movements of his muscles. In describing his trouble, he said: "At
one time, when I was talking particularly bad, I was out with some
other fellows driving our car. I started to talk, found it almost
impossible and noticed a sharp twitching of the muscles of face, arms
and limbs. Try as I might, I found I could not control these movements
and in another minute I had steered the car into the ditch and wrecked
it. And now," adds the young man, "although father has a new car, I am
never allowed to drive it!"

Here was a case where the spasmodic action of the muscles had gotten so
far beyond control as to make the ordinary pursuits of life dangerous
to the young man who stammered. These spasmodic movements were always
present--he told of one occasion when he was in a barber's chair being
shaved. He attempted to say a word or two while the barber was at work
upon him, with the result that he lost control of the muscles of face
and neck, causing the barber to cut a long gash in his neck.

This was, of course, an abnormal case of spasmodic stammering,
evidencing extraordinary muscular contractions of the worst type. In
practically every case of stammering some such peculiarity is evident,
resulting from the inability of the stammerer's brain to control
physical actions.

CHAPTER IV

THE INTERMITTENT TENDENCY

Paradoxical as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless true that one
of the symptoms of least seeming importance marks one of the most
dangerous aspects of both stuttering and stammering.

This is the alternating good-and-bad condition known as the
Intermittent Tendency or the tendency of the s