Professor Packard Begins Will Handle All Men

Stutterers and stammerers will be handled "quickly and scientifically" this year, according to Frederick C. Packard, Jr., '20, assistant professor of Public Speaking.

"It is to be deplored," Mr. Packard stated, "that of all human ailments, the medical profession and the psychologists have given the least attention to the disorders of stuttering and stammering, especially when one considers that sufferers from those painful and embarrassing disorders number nearly one percent of humanity."

With this in mind, individual meetings for those with speech defects were inaugurated last year. Although the complete medical and psychological history of each case was studied, attention was focused on the method of handling rather than on the causes of the ailment. To help the embarrassment of the sufferers in speaking in public, individual meetings were changed to group ones.

These groups met twice a week during the past year, and of the score or more who registered, the department worked regularly with fifteen. At the end of the course, all unanimously agreed that they experienced less difficulty in talking for the few days following the meeting.

This year the group meetings will be undertaken again. An organization meeting will take place at 8 o'clock this evening in Holden Chapel. The work will be in cooperation with the Hygiene Department and the Department of Psychology.

The course will be a scientific survey, and anyone who has ever had a speech defect of any sort is invited to be present. Only by getting the history of actual cases can the department build up its fund of knowledge.