Worst public speaking advice ever (The Lancet, 1939)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagining your audience naked (or in their underwear) is one piece of bad advice. But I just saw what may be the worst advice ever. In The Lancet there was a three-page article by E. N. Snowden on January 14, 1939 in the Notes Comments, and Abstracts section (pages 124 to 127) titled Self-Consciousness and Public Speaking. Then on February 11, 1939 (page 355) there was a comment on it by Claude Lillington (from the League of Red Cross Societies in Paris) as follows:

 

“Sir: The correspondence on this subject inspires me to remind your readers of an old tip for nervous, self-conscious public speakers. So simple. Just before you are due to speak, you touch the tip of your tongue with the glowing end of your cigarette. The reaction short-circuits the inhibitory impulses responsible for stammering and allied phenomena of a distressing character. And if you, an Englishman, are speaking in French, the burn may also give a lisping quality to your speech, infusing into it a note which your compatriots, if not your hosts, may interpret as Gallic.”

   

The cartoon man sticking out his tongue and cigarette both were adapted from images at Wikimedia Commons.