It is hopeless to try to cure stammering or stuttering by any method unless the instructor knows his business.  And this knowledge comes not by chance but by long, hard study.

Mail cures A failure:  No stammerer should attempt to be cured by any correspondence method.  When the decision has been made to have a speech defect removed, the sufferer should place himself under the care of a reputable institution, the past record of which entitles it to consideration.  Correspondence cures are a waste of money, a waste of time and finally leave the stammerer with the firm-founded belief that his trouble is absolutely incurable, when, as a matter of fact, he may have a comparatively simple form of stuttering or stammering which could be quickly eradicated by the proper institutional treatment.

At no time should the stammerer resort to the use of any mechanical contrivance to aid him in speaking correctly.  The cause of the trouble as previously explained, is inco-ordination.  Mechanical contrivances to hold the tongue in a certain position, elevate the palate or for any other purpose may be positively harmful and should be strictly avoided—­always.

CHAPTER V

THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERT DIAGNOSIS

A diagnosis is an examination or analysis to determine the identity of a disease and to reveal its cause and characteristics.  A reputable medical man will not undertake the treatment of any malady without having first made a searching examination and a thorough diagnosis of the trouble.

In the case of the stammerer or stutterer, expert diagnosis is very important and should be undertaken only by a diagnostician who has had previous training and experience of sufficient duration to enable him to be classed as an expert on the subject.  No stammerer or stutterer, however, should overlook the value of such diagnosis, for the reason that there are so many forms of speech disorders that it is totally impossible as well as unsafe for the sufferer himself to try to determine the exact nature of his trouble.

I recall the case of a certain young man who had depended upon his own knowledge to determine the identity of his speech defect and the nature of his trouble.  When a boy, he had swallowed a small program pencil with a metal tip, injuring his vocal cords, so he said, and causing him to become a stammerer.  An examination of his condition and a careful diagnosis of his case revealed the fact that his vocal organs were as normal as those of any person who had never stammered.  The diagnosis also revealed the fact that his stammering was not originally caused by any organic defect or any injury to the vocal organs, but that, on the other hand, he had, in the first place, inherited a predisposition to stammer, his father and his grandfather both having been stammerers whose trouble had never been remedied.  The diagnosis