Case No. 48.336—­This is a case that represents a very common type of Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and a type that is not so quickly cured as might be imagined.  This was a young man of 18, who not only stammered but stuttered.  His speech disorder, however, was further complicated by a bad habit of prefixing a totally foreign word or sound to the word or sound which he found it difficult to pronounce.  “B” was one of his hard sounds and in speaking the sentence:  “We expect to leave Baltimore,” he would say:  “We expect to leave ah—­ah—­ah—­Baltimore.”

The fear of failure which caused him to acquire this habit of speaking, led his friends often to think that his mind wandered, although as a matter of fact, he was a very bright young fellow, without a single indication of Thought Lapse.

I diagnosed his case as Combined Stammering and Stuttering, and explained to him that he represented a type of stammering that might be called the “Prefix Stammerer” because of their habit of prefixing every hard sound with an easy word or an easy sound, even to the extent of losing the sense of the sentence—­so great is the “Prefix Stammerer’s” fear of failure.

He placed himself for treatment, and although his trouble was complicated by this prefixing habit, seven weeks put him in good shape.  He forgot his fear of failure, found every word an easy word and every sound an easy sound.  He learned to talk fluently again and returned to his home, both physically and mentally improved.

Case No. 98.656—­This was the case of a rather arrogant young man from a good family, who was too proud to admit that he was a stammerer.  Rather it should be said, he was too foolish to admit it.  He was well-educated and with the store of words at his command, succeeded for some years in concealing the fact that he stammered.  This he accomplished by the substitution of words.  That is, words beginning with those letters that he could not utter were not used.  If his sentence included such a word, he quickly substituted another word of somewhat similar meaning, but beginning with a letter that he could pronounce correctly.  This substitution of words was so well done that for some time it was scarcely noticeable to the average listener.  Often he found himself incorrectly understood, because of his inability to use the right word in the right place, but nevertheless he was successful in concealing his speech defect from many of his friends.

This case is of a type known as the “Synonym Stammerer” because synonyms are used to avoid stammering.  The mental strain of trying always to substitute easy words for hard ones, was very great, however, and after a few years’ practice, the strain began to tell on the young man.  It affected his health and made him nervous and irritable.

It was at this time that he came to me.  Genuine Stammering was his trouble, and so it was diagnosed.  He refused to admit that he had a severe case, although the truth of the matter was, he did stammer badly and the mental power which had sustained him in his attempts to speak, was being steadily weakened by what we might term misuse.