The neuroses of development : being the Morrison lectures for 1890 / T.S. Clouston.

  • Clouston, T. S. (Thomas Smith), 1840-1915.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The neuroses of development : being the Morrison lectures for 1890 / T.S. Clouston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    without stammering; but if asked to sing a line beginning with a difficult word, he hesitates at it, and sometimes also hesitates at a line beginning with a vowel sound. The following case illustrates the connexion of ordinary stam- mering with a neurotic heredity and personal insanity at puberty, convulsions, and night-terrors :— P. B., aged 16-17, was first admitted in December 1888 for an attack of acute mania, and again for a similar attack in April 1890. There is not much known of his ancestry, but there is no history of insanity in the family. His mother died of apoplexy. His father is weak-minded, badly-formed, and drunken. Two sisters and a brother died in infancy. A sister, who survives, is a subject of petit mal. The patient himself had fits early in the teething stage, and again when between two and four years old. As a child he was subject to night-terrors, and has always been excitable and bad-tempered. His speech-defect has existed ever since he learned to speak, and is for the most part a simple stammer. In addition, however, there is a burr, so that he cannot roll an R-r-r-r-r ; his performance of a continued sibilant sound is also slightly defective ; and his soft palate does not meet the requirements quite efficiently, so that there is a slight nasal element where there should be none. His stammer is of the ordinary kind, the hesitation being most commonly over the voiceless explosives P, T, and K as initials, and to a less extent over the voiced explosives B, D, and G (hard). He, however, stammers occasionally also over the sibilant sound as an initial, and over the Wh sound. He sings fairly well, and has a good voice. When singing his stammer disappears, and only the other defects spoken of are noticeable. The stammer also becomes much less marked under the excite- ment of a mild maniacal attack. When well enough, he improves his articulation by putting his lips and tongue in the attitude required for a given word, thinking no more of the consonant, and emphasizing the vowel sound that follows. The last illustration of developmental speech defect I shall give is one illustrating defect in the mental aspect of speech. Articulation is normal when slowly performed, but the moment ordinary speech begins the mental co-ordination is lost, and we