Stamering And Cognate Defects Of Speech Vol - Ii

RESPIRATION 5

"It is a muscular spasm, originating in a nervous weakness.
The muscular spasm affects the breathing, the breathing affects
the speech, for without breath there is no speech." x

"Voice is breath converted into tone by the vibrations of
the vocal ligaments or cords in the larynx; and it is in the
incoordination of the breathing muscles with those of the
vibrating element, delaying the production of tone, that the
primary cause of stammering lies. . . .

"Faults of breathing are the primary cause of stammering;
the laryngeal faults being secondary." 2

"If the antagonistic action of both these groups of muscles
is in equilibrium, a cessation of expiration takes place. This
is the case with the stutterer where the diaphragm sometimes
falls into a state of spasmodic contraction which cannot be over-
come by the abdominal muscles." 3

"If the bellows of an organ can, for instance, by blowing too
weak a stream of air, be the cause of the instrument not pro-
ducing sound, in no less degree can the lungs be the cause of
the speech-apparatus remaining toneless. They likewise can
blow so weakly that the vocal cords wiH not vibrate, conse-
quently will not make voice." 4

"The stammerer constricts the throat because the vocal
organs, situated at the top of the windpipe, do not receive a
strong enough current of breath from below — from the lungs;

1 Shuldham, "Stammering and its Rational Treatment," p. 31.
2Behnke, "On Stammering, Cleft-Palate Speech, Lisping," pp.

38,41-

8 Guttmann, "Gymnastics of the Voice for Song and Speech; also
a Method for the .Cure of Stuttering and Stammering," p. 159.

4 "Kreutzer's Method," The Voice, Vol. Ill, p. 175.