ASYLUM SCANDAL.

Evening Star, Issue 14117, 21 July 1909, Page 3

ASYLUM SCANDAL.

REVELATIONS AT A VIENN \ TRIAL.

A man named Czontos, an attendant, at the Stcinhof Asylum, which is the largest in the monarchy, and is situated not faT from Vienna, and ie tenanted by patients from the whole of Lower Austria, w;is tried on May 26 before the. Vienna Criminal Court for ill-treatment of a patient named Feigl. Prisoner's brutality reached such a pitch that the patient died on Easter Monday, causing at "that time a great sensation. The result of the trial, which only ended late at night, displavod the management of the Steinhof Asylum, a building originally erected as a model institute of its kind, in a most unfavorable light, and the affair forms the, genera] topic of ditcussion. Tho magnificent architecture and technical perfection of thk sanatorium, upon whose erection no lees than £BOO,OOO was expended, present a striking contrast to the internal management which affected the welfare of the unfortunate insane committed to its care.

For the treatment of its 3,000 inmates only nineteen doctors were available, and the male atteixlants appear to have consisted :of men without the slightest knowledge and minus the necessary forbearance so essential to their service. Thev revived upon their arrival no preliminary instruction, and it was left to their discretion to road or to neglect the printed rules of the service. Czontos asserted that when he came on duty at eight in the morning he was neither spoken to by the director nor by any of the doctors", hut proceeded at once to commence his work. When it was necessary to "quiet" the more excited patients ice-cold packing was employed witlt-out medical orders. The deceased patient Feiel was thirty years old, and an assistant bookbinder by trade. He usually got into a highlv excited condition every night. On the' fatal occasion Czontcs attempted the ice-packing, which Feigl resisted. Thereupon Czontos threw him to the ground bv blows from a twisted sheet, brutally ill-treated him, and then dTew the sheet so tightly round his larynx that the cartilage "was broken in several places. He then dragged him a.bout the floor, calling out to other attendants : " Now the fellow will be at length quiet." He next threw the unfortunate man upon a bed. where ho remained without any attention until the morning, when the head attendant arrived and summoned the debtors, who, however, saw that all medical aid would bo in vainj as the man was dying. It was proved that the country pays annuallv for the support of this institution £360.000, but that the attendants are wretchedly paid and are on dutv from half-nast five in the morning until" one in the following mornins, ro that they have insufficient sleep to enable them to perform their arduous duties. The doctors sleep in a pavilion, where the wo?-Ft case* are kept, but this is eight to ten minutes' distance from the main building, so th-it when patients become unmanageable the attendants are obliged themselves to attempt their treatment. Many of these unfortunate creatures were formerly butchers and bakers, and their "treatment" usually consisted of beating. The patients called as witnesses acknowledged tiiis. The Court sentenced C7x>ntos for "severe assault" to six months' hard labor. The mildness of the sentence is strongly criticised by tho Press.—' Daily Telegraphs' correspondent.