SIBERIAN ATROCITIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9640, 15 January 1903, Page 4

SIBERIAN ATROCITIES.

« VIENNA, November 23. Dr. Molotkoff, a well-known Russian medical expert, has published an account of his investigations of the condition of lunatics m Siberia, from which it appears tiutt, with the exoeplion of the groat towns, there are no asylums throughout the vast country. The Siberian custom is to chain a lunatic up like a savage dog, and to keep him thus for the rest of .his life. Dr. Molotkoff found one peasant who for 18 years had been tied to a stake by a chain only one yard m length. His own son had forged the fetters, while his wife and children were living comfortably m a cottage a stone's throw distant. In another case Dr. Molotkoff found an old man. of 65, who had been chained to a spot for 24 years without once being removed . . Another young man was chained to the ground 'so tightly that he could neither stand nor sit upright, and but for the doctor's intervention would have spent tlie rest of his life m a recumbent position. _______________