Knotted Tongues: Stuttering in History and the Quest for a Cure

A former stutterer, Benson Bobrick here offers his perspective on the condition as well as an interesting history of how physicians have treated it.

Stuttering, or stammering (the terms are interchangeable clinically), occurs four times more frequently in males and ranges from mild hesitation in speech to severe disability. Hot irons were applied to stutterers' lips in the Middle Ages, and in the mid-19th century, risky tongue operations were performed in failed attempts to effect a cure. Bo...