Stamering And Cognate Defects Of Speech Vol - Ii

222 SYSTEMS OF TREATING STAMMERING

Itard's tongue-fork, Colombat's "refoule langue,"
and Wutzer's "glosso-mochlion" are fortunately ex-
tinct. But even now an occasional troglodyte will
recommend a tongue-raising apparatus reminiscent
of these contrivances.

Till a few years ago a German "speech specialist"
was selling "tongue-nerve powders" — at sixteen for
six marks. These powders were employed to "re- ;

vitalize and strengthen the weakened tongue-nerves." ;

Medicaments for curing stammering now belong, !

however, almost exclusively to the past.

Galvanic, faradic, and static electrical treatments
were once popular in the therapy of stammering.
They have now been almost universally discarded.

Various gymnastic exercises are used in many
stammering-schools. Ling's Swedish exercises are
particularly popular.1

Little need be said concerning mechanical and
physical aids in the treatment of stammering. Such
devices can be of benefit only while they inhibit fear,

1 Here is one argument for gymnastics: }

"The usual cause, however, is an easily excited brain, and stam-
merers are frequently persons of very acute sensibility and intelligence.
But in the case of such sensitive brains, thought is apt to radiate so
quickly as to defeat the capacity of the nerves to convey it. Hence ;

frequently arises the habit of stammering. ;

"Taking this hypothesis as my starting point, I argued that by j

developing other parts of the body, and thus diverting the brain-
impulses to other areas of the system, as well as by toning up the . |
nerves and circulation generally, by means of scientific physical