FREEDOM ON A CHAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, 22 September 1916, Page 2

FREEDOM ON A CHAIN

In the very heart of Kuiturland, in Berlin itself, it is still' believed that ;Luna-tics and l epileptics are possessed oi the devil, a.u.rl they are tr-aated accord-: ingty. The Bei-fiii. Vorwarts says:— "At a time I i Ice the present, v. heir' put- would 1 think, every body, and- mostof all persons 111 autnority and pubiiu institutions, was conseions of the desirability that (Isnniin manners and customs should find favour in the eyes of travelling- neutrals, a spectacle snJh as that winch presents itself daily in the Trepo Park ought to he. impossible. "there, a woman attired as a nurse,, is to be seen one day taking an old gentleman-, another time a. woman, and at times a youth or girl for a walk. All these are patients in a nursing home 1111-d-er the control of the Imperial 1 -Clinical Association of Berlin. I "The remarkable feature about these promenades is that ill every case the nurse leads her patient by a long, stout iron chain, which is fastened to a thick j iron collar encircling tlie neck. Several persons, including. ourselves, who lrave. spoken to medical men about this extraordinnry pro.u'duve were assured- that it was better to allow a mentally weak person 'freedom on a chain' than to shut him up in an asylum. "Fince 1010 there has been in existence a society consisting of German mental specialists and philanthropic individuals, the objects of which are to better the terrible conditions of the insane in the East. Yet here, in cultured Germany. peoplu aro still, considered, as in the middle ages, to be possessed of the devil, and are openly led about on a chain like a bear !"