THE AWFUL CONVENT SCANDAL EXPLAINED.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4355, 31 July 1871, Page 3

THE AWFUL CONVENT SCANDAL EXPLAINED.

Considerable excitement has been produced in Paris, and some scandal here, by the discovery in the Convent of Picpua of "mattresses furnished with straps and buckles, also two iron corsets, an iron skullcap, and a specie 3 of rack turned by a cogwheel, evidently for bending back the body with force. The Superior explained (says the writer of this account) that these were orthopaedic instruments — a superficial false, hood. The mattresses and straps struck me as being easily accounted for, for I have seen such, things used in French midwifery, and in cases of violent delirium; but the rack and its adjuncts are justly objects of grave suspicion, for they imply & use of brutal force which no disease at present known would justify." To persona at all acquainted with the appliances belonging to tho old-fashioned orthopjedy, all this wifl aeem very absurd. The steel corset, the iron skullcap, and the species of rack turned by a cog-wheel, are, beyond doubt, instruments for tho treatment of torticollis and of spinal curvature. The best • known orthopsedio mechanist of thia country writes to us on this point :—"I: — "I have not the slightest doubt in the world that the nuns spoke with perfect truth in describing what were sup« p >sed to be instruments of torture as orthopsedic appliances. To prejudiced eyes, prepared to discover everything horrible, it is easy enough to understand the error into which the observers may have been led ; and although it is by no means complimentary to my specialcalling, they arenot'heonly people m the world who call oithopsedic apparatus instruments of torture. I, as you doubtless know, have som« time attended the convict establishments of LondoD, when their inmates needed mechanical aid, and should not be surprised if the appliances which I hold in such esteem should some day be similarly described as those in France. The good people -who are raising the present outcry have lighted upon a mare's nesfc. "—British, Medical Journal.

A Pretty Little Idea: Flora: "Why Emily, what are you doing with your beautiful long hair?" Emily: "Well, y ou see, Fnzzer baa promised me six guineas for it and I can get a back to look pat as good, for a mere nothing. Besides, if I do wear my own hair, who believes it's mine ! and- sal may as well ge,t sow* wwwy for ii^