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be imperfect and maimed, since these motions are almost as various as the words we speak. For the other parts of the body may be said to help a man when he speaks, but the hands, if I may so express myself, speak themselves. Do we not by the hands desire a thing? Do we not by the hands promise, call, dismiss, threaten, act the suppliant, express our abhorrence or fear? By the hands do we not interrogate, deny, shew our grief, joy, doubt, confession, penitence, &c.? Do not these same hands provoke, forbid, entreat, approve, admire, and express shame ? Do they not in pointing out localities and persons supply the very place often of nouns, pronouns, and adverbs? insomuch that amid all the number and diversity of tongues upon the earth, this infinite use of the hands seems to remain the universal language common to all."

Although, as I have said before, the hands should in all graceful motion describe waving lines or curves, yet in energetic actions they very often are, and to a considerable extent may be straightened. It will be found that natural impulse almost always makes, and properly makes, the termination of the motion of the hand on the emphatic word or syllable, and this by a kind of stroke or beat, proceeding mainly from the wrist, which varying in power and degree, with the character of the language employed, and the personal energy and temperament of the speaker, not only perfects and determines the action, but will be found. to increase materially the due weight or percussion of the voice. It must be remembered that the right hand is essentially the hand of action, and that the left hand is almost always used in mere subordination to the right. The late well known writer and teacher of elocution, Mr. B. H. Smart, was accustomed in his instruction to pupils to group all gesture under four heads, which he classified under the names of I. Emphatic; II. Referential; III. Impassioned; IV. Imitative. Of these four groups what is meant by emphatic action is sufficiently explained by the term.

"REFERENTIAL GESTURE is of frequent occurrence. By it, the speaker calls attention to what is actually present, or to what is imagined for the moment to be present, or to the direction, real, or for the moment conceived, in which anything has happened, or may happen. When Lord Chatham speaks of the figure in the tapestry frowning on a degenerate representative of his race, he refers to the place by correspondent action. When Canute is described ordering his chair to be placed on the shore, the narrator, by action, fixes attention to some particular spot, as if the sea were really present. When a picture of any kind is to be exhibited to the mental view, the speaker will convey a lively impression in proportion as he himself conceives it clearly, and by action refers consistently to its different parts, as if the scene were before the eyes of his auditors.

"Of IMPASSIONED GESTURE it may be observed in this place, that, though all gesture of this kind ought to be the effect of natural impulse, yet the assumption of the outward signs of expression is one of the means of rousing in the speaker the real feeling. This consideration, and this alone, can justify any perceptive directions where nature seems to offer herself as sole instructor.

"IMITATIVE GESTURE often takes place with good effect in speaking, particularly in narration or description of a comic kind. To use it in serious description would generally be, to burlesque the subject; though even here, if sparingly and gracefully introduced, it is not always misplaced. For instance, in Collins' 'Ode on the Passions,' the narrator may use imitative action when he tells us that

"Fear his hand its skill to try

Amid the chords bewilder'd laid,
And back recoil'd :'

and that

66 6

Anger rush'd

In one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hands the strings:'

and so, throughout the ode, wherever imitative action is possible without extravagance.

"Of gesture thus discriminated, it will not be difficult to determine the species which this or that department of speaking calls most into play. The pulpit, for instance, hardly admits of other than emphatic gesture, seldom of referential, not very often of impassioned, never of imitative. The senate and the bar may more frequently admit of referential and impassioned gesture, very seldom of imitative. It is only the stage that makes full use of gesture drawn from all the four sources that have been indicated. Yet the practice of the pupil, whatever may be his destined profession, ought not to be confined only to one or two of these species of gesture. For, in order to bring forth the powers of intellect and sensibility, a wide range of subjects must be chosen; and in all these, his business will be, to suit the action to the word, the word to the action.''

[graphic]

LECTURE IX.

Hindrances to Fluency of speech. Stammering and Stuttering.

Definition of each of these impediments. Various causes of Stammering and Stuttering. Other varieties of Defective Articulation. Means by which all Impediments of Speech may be removed. Special directions for the self-cure of Stammering and Stuttering, and the correction of all Imperfect and Defective Articulation.

PROPOSE in this lecture treating exclusively of those hindrances to fluency in delivery which commonly are classified under the names of stammering, stuttering, and impediments of speech. Persons in general use the terms stammering and stuttering indiscriminately, and call every variety of defective pronunciation by one or the other of these names, as if they were only synonyms. Stammering is the difficulty, in some cases the inability, to properly enunciate some or many of the elementary speech sounds, accompanied or not by a slow, hesitating, more or less indistinct delivery, but not attended with frequent repetitions of the initial sounds, and consequent convulsive efforts to surmount the difficulty.

Stuttering, on the other hand, is a vicious utterance manifested by frequent repetitions of initial or other elementary sounds, and always more or less attended with muscular contortions.

The above is the definition of these two affections laid down by Dr. Hunt in his admirable and exhaustive book on the subject,* and to him is to be given the merit of having been, I believe, the first English writer to discriminate accurately between these two disorders which differ both in kind and origin. To those who wish fully to investigate the history of these painful and unfortunate affections which, unless removed, so often mar all the sufferer's prospects in life, as well as to see the many severe, cruel, and useless operations and mechanical appliances which, from time to time, and by various persons, have been proposed, and too often adopted, for the cure of these maladies, I most strongly recommend Dr. Hunt's work on stammering, as well as his larger work, entitled, "The Philosophy of Voice and Speech."+ I avail myself of Dr. Hunt's excellent resumé to place before you the chief causes of stammering.

"Vowel Stammering.-The belief that stammering occurs only in the pronunciation of consonants is certainly erroneous; the vowels are equally subject to this defect, though not to the same extent as the

* Hunt on "Stammering." Longman & Co., 1861.
+ Longman & Co., 1859.

consonants. The proximate causes of defective vowel sounds, may have their seat either in the vocal apparatus, or in the oral canal. The original sounds may be deficient in quality, from an affection of the vocal ligaments, as in hoarseness; or the sounds may be altered in the buccal and nasal cavities, from defects, or an improper use of the velum ; in which cases the vowels are frequently aspirated. Enlargement of the tonsils, defective lips and teeth, may also influence the enunciation of the vowels. But the whole speech-apparatus may be in a healthy state, and yet the enunciation of the vowels may be faulty, from misemployment, or from defective association of the various organs upon which the proper articulation of the vowels depends. In some cases the faulty pronunciation may be traced to some defect in the organ of hearing.

66 DEFECTIVE ENUNCIATION OF CONSONANTS.

"Consonantal Stammering may, like that of the vowels, be the result of an organic affection, either of the vocal apparatus, or of the organs of articulation. When, for instance, the soft palate, either from existing apertures or inactivity of its muscles, cannot close the posterior nares, so that the oral canal may be separated from the nasal tube, speech acquires a nasal timbre, and the articulation of many consonants is variously affected. B and p then assume the sound of an indistinct m; d and t sound somewhat like n; and g and k like ng. The action of the velum during speech is thus described by Sir Charles Bell.

"In a person whom I had the pain of attending long after the bones of the face were lost, and in whom I could look down behind the palate, I saw the operation of the velum palati. During speech it was in constant motion; and when the person pronounced the explosive letters, the velum rose convex, so as to interrupt the ascent of breath in that direction; and as the lips parted, or the tongue separated from the teeth or palate, the velum recoiled forcibly.'

"On the other hand, closure of the nasal tube either from a common cold or other obstructions, affects the articulation of m, n, ng, which then sound nearly as b, d, g, hard.

66 THE CHIEF CAUSES OF STAMMERING.

"The variety of defects which constitute stammering result either from actual defective organisation or from functional disturbance. Among organic defects may be enumerated: hare-lip, cleft-palate, abnormal length and thickness of the uvula, inflammation and enlargement of the tonsils, abnormal size and tumours of the tongue, tumours in the buccal cavity, want or defective position of the teeth, &c.

"Dr. Ashburner, in his work on Dentition, mentions a very curious case of a boy who, though not deaf, could not speak. This he attributed to the smallness of the jaws, which taking at length a sudden start in growth by which the pressure being taken off from the dental nerves, the organs became free, and the boy learned to speak. Considering that the teeth play but a subordinate part in articulating-for all the speech sounds, including even the dentals, may be pronounced

without their aid, as is the case in toothless age—it is certainly not a little singular that the mere pressure on the dental nerves should produce such an effect. It is very possible that in this case the motions of the lower jaw and of the tongue were impeded, but even then, it is not easy to account for the fact that the child never attempted to articulate, however imperfectly.

"When the organs are in a normal condition, and the person is unable to place them in a proper position to produce the desired effect, the affection is said to be functional. Debility, paralysis, spasms of the glottis, lips, &c., owing to a central or local affection of the nerves, habit, imitation, &c., may all more or less tend to produce stammering.

"From these observations it may be inferred that stammering is either idiopathic, when, arising from causes within the vocal and articulating apparatus; or it is symptomatic, when, arising from cerebral irritation, paralysis, general debility, intoxication, &c. Children stammer, partly from imperfect development of the organs of speech, want of control, deficiency of ideas, and imitation, or in consequence of cerebral and abdominal affections. The stammering, or rather faltering of old people chiefly arises from local or general debility. The cold stage of fever, intoxication, loss of blood, narcotics, may all produce stammering. Stammering is idiopathic and permanent in imbecility, when the slowness of thought keeps pace with the imperfection of speech. It may also be transitorily produced by sudden emotions. Persons gifted with great volubility, when abruptly charged with some real or pretended delinquency may only be able to stammer out an excuse.

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"The main feature of stuttering consists in the difficulty in conjoining and fluently enunciating syllables, words, and sentences. The interruptions are more or less frequent, the syllables or words being thrown out in jerks. Hence the speech of stutterers has been by Shakspeare* (and by Plutarch before him) aptly compared to the pouring out of water from a bottle with a long neck, which either flows in a stream, or is intermittent; the patient in the former case, feeling that his glottis is open, endeavours to pour out as many words as possible before a new interruption takes place. The stoppage of the sound may take place at the second or third syllable of a word, but occurs more frequently at the first, and the usual consequence is, that the beginning of a syllable is several times repeated until the difficulty is conquered. The stutterer, unless he be at the same time a stammerer, which is now and then the case, has generally no difficulty in articulating the elementary sounds, in which respect he differs from the latter; it is in the combination of these sounds in the formation of words and sentences that his infirmity consists.

"I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it? quickly, and speak apace. I would thou could'st stammer, that thou might'st pour this concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow mouthed bottle, either too much at once, or none at all. I pr'ythee take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings." As You Like it, Act. 3. Sc. 2.

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