The wilfully disobedient cases:  Taking up the fourth class of incurables, those who refuse to obey instructions—­I can only say that such as these are not deserving of a cure.  They are not sincere, they are not willing to hold themselves to the simplest program no matter how great might be the resultant good.  They spend their own money or the money of their parents foolishly, get no results and disgust the instructor who spends his or her efforts in trying to bring about a cure, against obstacles that no one can overcome, viz.:  unwillingness to do as told.  The old saying that “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” applies most forcefully to the case of the wilfully disobedient stammerer.  You can instruct this individual in the methods to bring about a cure, but you can’t make him follow them.

I well remember one case in point.  A young man of 20 years came to me apparently with every desire in the world to be cured of stammering.  The first day he followed instructions with great care, seemed to take a wonderful interest in his work and at the end of the day expressed to me his pleasure in finding himself improved even with one day’s work.  By the third day, the novelty had worn off and his “smart-aleck” tendencies began to come to the surface.  He was impertinent.  He was impudent.  He was rude.  He failed to come to his work promptly in the morning, was late at meals, stayed out at night beyond the time limit set by the dormitory rules and persisted in doing everything in an irregular and wilfully disobedient manner.

I was not inclined to dismiss him because of his misconduct, because it was evident that here was a boy of more than ordinary native intelligence, a fine-looking chap with untold opportunities ahead of him, if he were cured of stammering.  So I put up with his misdeeds for many days, until one morning I decided that either he must come to time or return to his home—­and he elected to take the latter course.

In looking up this boy’s record later on, it was found that he was incorrigible, that his parents had never been successful in controlling him at any time and that he had been expelled from school twice.

There is no need for me to say that this boy was afflicted with something even worse than stammering—­something that science was not able to help—­i. e., a lack of sense.  His case was incurable, just as much so as if an inch of his tongue had been sheared off.  With such stammerers as this I have neither patience nor sympathy.  They have no respect or consideration for others and are consequently entitled to none themselves.

The chronic dissipator:  The fifth type of incurable might be called the “chronic dissipator” and his stammering is hopelessly incurable just as far as his habits are incurable.  The person who persists in undermining his mental and physical being with dissipation and who, when he knows the results of his doings, will not cease, cannot hope to be cured of stammering.  Cases such as these I do not attempt to treat.  They are neither wanted nor accepted.