( 2 )
2. There were 90 patients in the asylum at the close of the year, thesame as in the previ-
ousyear, but the average number in the asylum during the year was higher than last year, being
97 to 84. The total number of admissions was 55 and the number of patients for treat-
ment during the year was 145. Of these 21 were discharged cured, and 7 made over to their
friends improved in health. The number of criminal lunatics has increased from 14 to 16.
3. During the last four months of the year the city of Delhi has suffered severely from
an outbreak of fever, and the asylum has not escaped. Patients, warders, and the Overseer
himself, all alike have suffered, and the mortality has consequently been higher than
usual. The two cases of cholera appear to have been sporadic. They occurred one in
August and the other in September.
4. The profits derived from the labor of the inmates has increased from Rs. 1,614-4-0
to Rs. 421-15-11. This probably includes the value of the waste land reclaimed, which Dr..
Fairweather estimates at Rs. 250, an estimate which appears somewhat high. This work,
however, is very useful, furnishing healthy occupation to the patients, and the fact that the
lunatics can be induced to engage in such work, and carry it on with such useful results, is
very creditable to the management.
5. Rupees 36-1-6 has been realized from the friends of those lunatics able to assist in their
maintenance; the sum is not large, but a beginning has been made, and this is satisfactory.
6. The system adopted by Dr. Fairweather of laying down soft loose earth in the cells
and earthen beds has been successful in keeping the cells and dormitories free from unpleasant
odours. Some of the lunatics are very filthy in their habits, and the usual system of leeping
the wards daily has been insufficient.
7. The lunatics are allowed as much liberty as is compatible with their own safety and
that of the establishment. This no doubt considerably facilitates their recovery.
8. The conduct of the establishment is favorably reported on by the Superintendent,
though the number of escapes which have occurred calls for increased vigilance on the part of the
warders. The management of the asylum has been carefully supervised by Dr. Fairweather.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DELHI LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1878. SURGEON-MAJOR J.
FAIRWEATHER, M. D., SUPERINTENDENT.
Population.
1. ON 1st January 90 lunatics remained in the asylum from the previous year, 52
were admitted and 3 re-admitted during the year, making
a total of 145, of whom 21 were discharged cured, 7 were
transferred to friends improved, and 3 not improved in mental condition, 2 idiot boys were
transferred to the poor-house as a more appropriate place for their detention, 1 lunatic escaped
and has not been recaptured, 21 died, and 90 remained at the end of the year, the same num-
ber as last year.
Although the admissions have been 9 less than last year, the daily average number of
lunatics has increased from 84 to 97. The proportion of cured to daily average strength
as well as to admissions is considerably less than last year, but is fully equal to the average of
4 or 5 of the immediately preceding years.
Mortality.
2. Of the 21 deaths 6 were from diarrhœa, 1 from dysentery, 2 from cholera, 5 from
pneumonia, 1 from phthisis, 1 from colic caused by
eating enormous quantities of neem berries (one or two
deaths among civil population were also seen from the same cause), 1 from dropsy, 2 from
meningitis, 1 from abscess of the brain, and 1 was found dead in his berth one morning with
marks about his throat, which left little doubt that he had been strangled by one of 4 lunatics
who occupied the same cell with him. The case was carefully investigated at the time by the
Deputy Commissioner, but no evidence was got of how or by whom the deed was done. The
man was a feeble idiotic lad and had been usually kept in hospital.
The mortality calculated on the daily average strength amounts to 21 per-cent. and exceeds
that of any of the previous eleven years with the exception of 1872, when it was as high as 28
per cent. The great mortality of this year is not attributable to any thing specially connect-
ed with the asylum, but is to be put down to the extremely unhealthy character of the season
which has effected equally the prisoners in the neighbouring jail, the troops, both European
and Native, in the station, and the general population of the city. No such unhealthy year
has been experienced in Delhi for a very long period; and that the unhealthiness has not been
confined to this neighbourhood is evident from the mortuary returns of the Province. What
has been the cause of this it is unnecessary for me to speculate upon here: suffice it to say
that, whatever the cause, there has been an extraordinary development of what are usually in-
cluded under the term of malarious diseases with their sequelæ and complications. There
were 130 admissions from intermittent fever, against 12 for the previous year ; and, although
no deaths are put down to this cause, the deaths from dysentery, diarrhœa, and some of those
from pneumonia, properly belong to it, as these diseases were only complications or sequelæ