title: Cacolalia.
abstract: To sum up: Communication, particularly oral, would be aided or furthered by abstention from cacolalia. Clichés, redundancies, and expressions battered by overuse should be avoided and the imparting of knowledge by means of precise language should be done audibly and at a reasonable speed. One should speak at scientific meetings only as fast and certainly as simply as one would in ordinary mundane intercourse. Above all, one's audience should not know what words or expressions are going to be used in certain given situations. If this could be attained, the hours in a hospital on rounds or at lectures would be better spent and ultimately, the speaker, too, would derive more satisfaction from his work if he were rewarded with stimulating questions from an appreciative audience instead of the perfunctory applause of somnolent, noncomprehending colleagues, driven almost to distraction by unending cacolalia complicated by lightning speed and rank inaudibility.
authors.affiliation: Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eibel
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009985:Orthopedics; D014956:Writing