218 SYSTEMS OF TREATING STAMMERING

times encountered. "Bates' Appliances" may be
cited as examples, though probably none of these
particular instruments have been foisted upon the
public within the last twenty years. "Bates' Ap-
pliances" were invented a little more than fifty years
ago by an American, and at the time, of course, were
infallible in curing stammering. The following re-
port describing the implements is by "The Com-
mittee on Science and the Arts" of the Franklin
Institute:

"REPORT ON INSTRUMENTS EOR THE CURE OF STAMMERMG

"The Committee on Science and the Arts, constituted by the
Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, for the promo-
tion of the Mechanic Arts, to whom were referred for examina-
tion, 'Instruments for the Cure of Stammering/ invented by
Mr. Robert Bates, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — REPORT :

"That much discrepancy of opinion has prevailed as to the
cause and consequent treatment of stammering. Many of the
earlier writers have attributed all the varieties of this form of
defective speech to some organic affection of the. vocal appara-
tus, or malformation of the parts that compose the mouth and
fauces; as, for example, hypertrophy of the tongue, a low posi-
tion of that organ in the mouth, enlargement of the tonsils,
uvula, etc. The treatment, based upon these erroneous and
limited views as to the cause, was necessarily as various as it
was unsuccessful. Thus rollers were placed under the tongue,
to obviate its fancied depression (Madame Leigh's treatment);
the tonsils and uvula were excised, deep gashes made in the
tongue to lessen its size, etc. Others, again, traced the defect
to a want of nervous power in the tongue, occasioned by paral-