he notes the wide extension of the belief that the cutting of the _filet,_ or _frein,_ the _frenum,_ or "bridle" of the tongue of the newborn infant facilitates, or makes possible, articulate speech. According to M. Sebillot, the cutting of the _sublet,_ as it is called, is quite general in parts of Brittany (Haute Bretagne), and M. Moisset states that in the Yonne it is the universal opinion that neglect to do so would cause the new-born child to remain dumb for life; M. Desaivre cites the belief in Poitou that, unless the _lignoux_ were cut in the child at birth, it would prevent its sucking, and, later on, its speaking. The operation is usually performed by nurses and midwives, with the nail of the little finger, which is allowed to grow excessively long for the purpose (205. 6). Dr. Chervin discusses the scientific aspects of the subject, and concludes that the statistics of stammering and the custom of cutting the _frenum_ of the tongue do not stand in any sort of correlation with each other, and that this ancient custom, noted by Celsus, has no real scientific _raison d'etre_ (205. 9). We say that a child is "tongue-tied," and that one "makes too free with his tongue"; in French we find: _Il a le filet bien coupe,_ "he is a great talker," and in the eighteenth century _Il n'a pas de filet_ was in use; a curious German expression for "tongue-tied" is _mundfaul,_ "mouth-lazy." Following up the inquiry of Dr. Chervin in France, M. Hofler of Tolz has begun a similar investigation for Germany (263). He approves of the suggestion of Dr. Chervin, that the practice of cutting the _frenum_ of the tongue has been induced by the inept name _frenulwm, frein, Bändchen,_ given by anatomists to the object in question. According to H. Carstens the _frenulum_ is called in Low German _keekel-reem_ or _kikkel-reem,_ which seems to be derived from _käkeln,_ "to cry, shriek," and _reem,_ "band, cord," so that the word really signifies "speech-band." If it is cut in children who have difficulty in speaking before the first year of life, or soon after, they will be cured of stuttering and made to speak well. To a man or woman who does a good deal of talking, who has "the gift of the gab," the expression _Em (ehr) is de keekelreem gut snaden_ = "His (her) _frenum_ has been well cut," is applied. In some parts of Low Germany the operation is performed for quite a different reason, viz., when the child's tongue cannot take hold of the mother's breast, but always slips off. Hofler mentions the old custom of placing beneath the child's tongue a piece of ash-bark (called _Schwindholz_), so that the organ of speech may not vanish (schwinden); this is done in the case of children who are hard of speech (263.191, 281).