Thus was inaugurated a period of butchery that lasted until--almost before the year was out--it was observed that those "cured" by this sanguinary means usually began, before long, to stammer as badly as ever, and also that those who were not "cured" had a tendency to die. Yet Dieffenbach was no charlatan, no "quack." He was a reputable surgeon who honestly believed that he had discovered the true remedy for stammering. And, if the passage of time has intensified the tragedy and absurdity of his method and has relegated his glowing account of it to a place in the literature of medical curiosities, there is this to be said of him--that he has had plenty of successors who have erred almost as seriously in their attempts to solve the problem presented by the widespread and baffling malady of stammering. In fact, up to within quite recent times the record of the struggle against stammering has been one of continuous failure. There has been a steady accumulation of methods of treatment, from surgical operations of a less drastic type than Dieffenbach's to the use of various articulatory and respiratory exercises and devices, without any appreciable effect in the diminution of stammering. Even to-day the great majority of physicians and lay specialists--to whom, by a sort of tacit agreement, the medical profession has largely relinquished the task of dealing with stammering--labour to next to no purpose. At this very moment there are in the United States at least three hundred thousand persons who stammer, fully half of whom stammer so badly that they are severely handicapped in the gaining of a livelihood. Thousands of these have resorted to medical advice, or have attended so-called schools for stammerers, with lastingly beneficial results to few. Small wonder that there is, among stammerers and their friends, a tendency to believe that stammering is one of the hopelessly incurable maladies of mankind. And this would undeniably appear to be true, as regards many stammerers. On the other hand, it may confidently be said that nearly all cases of stammering are actually susceptible of marked improvement, often amounting to 75 or 90 per cent. of a cure; and that a number of cases can be completely cured. Such a statement, to be sure, could not have been safely made even a few years ago. This for the reason that only lately has there been any really systematic effort by scientifically trained investigators to study the phenomena of stammering, with a view to ascertaining, with scientific exactness, its true nature and causation.