organs and could not hope to reach the real cause of my trouble. I
do not doubt that this man was entirely sincere in explaining his
own science to me in a way that led me to build up hopes of relief
from that method. He simply did not understand stammering and its
causes and was therefore not prepared to treat it.

I was told of another doctor who claimed to be able to cure
stammering. When I called to see him, he had me wait in his
reception room for nearly two hours, for the purpose, I presume,
of giving me the impression that he was a very busy man. Then he
called me into his private consultation room, where he apparently
had all of the modern and up-to-date surgical instruments. He put
me through a thorough examination, after which he said that the
only thing to cure me was a surgical operation to have my tonsils
removed. I was not willing to consent to the use of the knife, so
therefore the operation was never performed.

Since that time, however, the practice of operating on children
especially for the removal of adenoids and tonsils has become very
popular and quite frequently this is the remedy prescribed for
various and sundry ailments of childhood. In no case must a parent
expect to eradicate stuttering or stammering by the removal of the
tonsils. The operation, beneficial as it may be in other ways,
does not prevent the child from stammering--for the operation does
not remove the cause of the stammering--that cause is mental, not
physical.