TERRIBLE REVEKATION FROM A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 10236, 2 July 1883, Page 2

TERRIBLE REVEKAT ION FROM A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Some very serious charges have been made agaiust the officials connected with the; Ararat (Victoria) Lunatic Asylum, by a female recently discharged ! from that institution, who, it is stated, has told her painful story in a perfectly rational manner, and without any appearance of excitemeul. She states that the only object she has in publishing the charges she makes is to secure public attention to the terrible sufferings endured by female patients placed in t'ae refractory ward of the asylum, which ward was occupied by herself for a considerable time. The female attendants are alleged to be frequently drunk, having appropriated to their own use the Btimulants ordered for the patients, and also that they have for their own diet luxuries not intended for their use. These attendants are also charged with treating the patients in a most brutal manner, some of the latter having their bodies one mass of bruises from illtreatment. The bath is said to be the place usually chosen for inflioting punishment on the patients, towel racks and bunches of keys being the instruments nsually employed in beating them. Those patients who do not rise punctually are pulled from their beds on to the floor by their hair or ears. Some of the unfortunate inmates were compelled, against their will, to take large doses of aperient medicine in order to weaken them, and thus ensure their easy management. In the event of a paitient refusing to" take the food, which, as a rule, is badly cooked and dished, up, two or three attendant' gather round the patient, and, whilst one held her nose, the others would force the food with a spoon down her throat. On one occasion the bowl of the spoon was actually rammed so far down the gullet of a woman's throat that it had to be forcibly withdrawn, and the withdrawal of the spoon was immediately followed by a terrible gush of blood, and the unfortunate woman subsequently died. The relator named two other women whose deaths she believed to be due to brutal treatment in the asylum. The principal attendants, the superintendent, and the matron of the institution, it is said, are not aware of these shameful proceedings, because the attendants are careful to keep them ignorant of what takes place in. the wards. No complaints have yet reached the Chief Secretary on the subject (says an exchauge), but He has communicated with DrDick, InspectorGrenerdl of Lunatic Asylums, and if a confirmation of the statements cm be obtained an offieUl inquiry will be held .