Thomas Perkins Lowman Hunt (1802 in Whitchurch,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

– 18 August 1851 in Godlingstone near

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

) was an English speech therapist, inventor of a method claiming to cure

stammering Stuttering, also known as stammering, is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases as well as involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the ...

Life

Hunt was born in

in 1802, and is stated to have been educated at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

, Hampshire. He entered

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1822, with the intention of becoming a minister of the church of England, but the experience of a fellow-collegian who stammered is said to have arrested his attention, and he left Cambridge without taking a degree in order to devote himself to the study and cure of what he called 'defective utterance'. He found that the lips, the tongue, the jaws, and the breath were in different cases the offending members. Thinking that he was able to cure stammering, he sought wider experience in a provincial tour, and finally in 1827 settled in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

, London. He relied on simple common-sense directions. Each case was studied separately. Sometimes slow and sometimes rapid articulation was recommended to his patients, others were taught to place their tongues in particular positions, and others practised improved means of breathing. He held that not one case in fifty was the consequence of malorganisation, and objected to surgical operations. At an early date, 1828, he was patronised by Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., who sent him pupils for twenty-four years. When George Pearson, the chief witness in the case respecting the attempt on the life of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

made by John Francis on 30 May 1842, was brought into court, he was incapable of giving utterance to his evidence, but after a fortnight's instruction from Hunt he spoke with perfect readiness, a fact certified by Sir Peter Laurie, the sitting magistrate. ''

The Lancet ''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823. The journal publishes original research articles, ...

'' of 16 May 1846 made a severe attack on Hunt as an unlicensed practitioner. Hunt ably replied in the ''

Literary Gazette ''The Literary Gazette'' was a British literary magazine, established in London in 1817 with its full title being ''The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences''. Sometimes it appeared with the caption title, "London Lite ...

'' of 30 May. His leisure was spent in

, where he cultivated land, and made agricultural improvements and experiments. In 1849 his numerous pupils, belonging to all professions, in commemoration of his twenty-two years' service, subscribed for his bust in marble, which was modelled by

Joseph Durham Joseph Durham (1814 – 27 October 1877) was an English sculptor. Life Durham was born in London in 1814. Around 1827 he was apprenticed o John Francis. He later worked in the studio of E. H. Baily for three years, and exhibited his ...

, and exhibited in the Royal Academy. He died at Godlingstone, near

, Dorset, on 18 Aug. 1851, leaving his practice to his son

James Hunt James Simon Wallis Hunt (29 August 1947 – 15 June 1993) ''Autocourse Grand Prix Archive'', 14 October 2007. Retrieved 4 November 2007. was a British racing driver who won the Formula One World Championship in . After retiring from racing in ...

. His widow, Mary, died 25 Jan. 1855, aged 49.

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Thomas Perkins Lowman 1802 births 1851 deaths People from Purbeck District Speech and language pathologists