The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-19
VIENNA'S FAMOUS FOOL
TOWER TO BE RAZED.
One Of the Remaining Monuments to Europes Incredible
Cruelty Toward the Insane-Men Still Living Who Re-
member Hearing HowIs and Shrieks From the Dark
Embellishments of Torture Used in This Generation
BY MARTIN LIE ROY.

I was expected to take the nourishment
from this direct.
Lunatics who were exceptionally
| noisy and violent were thrown into
| cells that were entirely dark, and IL
that did not quell them, they were put
under cold shower baths and douches
until they were exhausted.
Chains and cold douches and dark
cells were used until near the middle
of the last century, and 1t was as late
as 1853 before the violent insane we're
removed regularly to asylums that
were really adapted for the purpose
according to modern ideas.
The "Meche meal" Treatment.
This Vienna Fool Tower, even in It's
worst days, was haven, of rest COM
pared with many of the other prisons
for lunatics that still existed then in
Europe; and the Vienna treatment of
the lunatic was enlightened compared
with the ideas of such eminent and
well disposed men as Professors Ideler
and Horn of Berlin. who wrote learned
treatises in which they argued for the
useful and beneficent physiological and
psychological effects of instruments of
duress.
They had such faith in the mechan-
ical treatment that their favorite i'm
by the appropriate and frightful name
of the English coffin" This coffin was
one in fact. 1t was a long, narrow
chest, into which the maniac was
forced. Then the lid was fastened
down. The only opening in 1t was one
just large enough to expose the face
of the patient.
Another utensil was the "Fools'
wheel" which was to all intents and in
design nothing except a magnified
squirrel cage with the familiar wheel
The raving lunatic was imprisoned in
this wheel and left there until it
stopped revolving, which fact was ac-
cepted as indication that the mania
had worked itself out.
Metal HeIments and Maske.
Still more brutal were the iron masks
that were used as late as 1867 Some
of these were unearthed recently from
the cellar of the Insane Asylum in An
dernach, Germany, and preserved by
the present director of the institution.
Two of them look exactly like the wire
fencers mask worn when using the
foils. The third is far more massive,
and made entirely of extremely
heavy sheet tin. The latter mask has
two holes pierced for the eyes and one
tiny aperture for the mouth. To give
the WedIeT dlT tHeTe are u lew very
small holes in the top of the helmet
These appliances were used for pa
tents that had the habit of biting or
splitting. The offenders had to wear
them constantly. The wire masks were
taken off only at meal times, and then
clapped right on again. The still more
violent patients who had to wear the
tin helmet often were not relieved of it,
even to eat, but were fed through the
hole that served for a mouthpiece. The
front of this gruesome head covering
was so arranged that it could be
opened like a visor.
The old times of frank unreasoning
brutality, when lunatics We're treated
as despicable and hateful things, had
passed away long before 1t struck any
one that the use of these helmets and
similar instruments was vicious and
harmful. 1t was a regular part of the