Any attempt to offer a survey of a relatively new branch of medicine to representatives of older branches is a laudable enterprise. Moses' lecture1 on the topic of logopedics (phoniatrics), intended to render such service to laryngologists, is therefore in itself worthy of acknowledgement. The difficulties due to limited time for one lecture should not be under-rated. However, for the readers who are not thoroughly informed about our younger branch of medicine, I may be permitted to offer some information which, in my opinion, is essential, particularly since it will provide the reader with some further references to the literature.
Moses states that the mechanistic theory on which the clinical meaning of the term phonasthenia is based is outdated. If one follows the history of the endeavor to understand phonasthenia, indeed, functional voice disorders altogether, one may wonder what should be outdated. Even the first physician dealing with these