which follows a period of improvement, often marks the period of
transition from one stage of the disorder into the next and more
serious stage. This transition, however, may not be a conscious
process--that is, the sufferer may not in any way be informed of
the fact that he is passing into a more serious stage of his
trouble save that after the transition has taken place, he may
find himself a chronic or constant stammerer and in a nervous and
mental condition much more acute than ever before.

Dr. Alexander Melville Bell (father of Alexander Graham Bell,
inventor of the telephone), who, before his death, was a speech
expert of unquestioned repute, discovered this condition many
years ago and in his work PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH speaks of it as
follows (page 234):

"Often the transition from simple to more complicated forms of
difficulty is so rapid, that it cannot be traced or anticipated.
Perhaps some slight ailment may imperceptibly introduce the higher
impediment or some evil example may draw the ill-mastered
utterance at onee into the vortex of the difficulty."

This Progressive Tendency, which we shall hereafter call the
Progressive Character of the trouble in order to distinguish it
from the Intermittent Tendency, is present in more than 98 per
cent, of the cases of stammering and stuttering which I have
examined and diagnosed.

True, there are many cases, the apparent or manifest tendencies of
which do not indicate that the disorder is becoming more serious,
but nevertheless this condition is no indication that the trouble