(17)
Deaths.
4. Only 4 deaths occurred during the year ; 1 from remittant fever, 2 from pneumonia
and 1 from accidental drowning.
A full inquiry into the circumstances attending the
last-mentioned death was made by the Deputy Commissioner at my request , and , although the
Overseer was severely censured for his apparent endeavour in the first instance to conceal the
real cause of death, nothing came out to give rise to the suspicion that it was anything but
purely accidental. It occurred at a time when the warders were much too few for the number
of lunatics, and before the recent augmentation was sanctioned. The man was an epileptic,
who, when the evening meal was being served out, managed to slip away unperceived, and
some time elapsed before he was missed. When search was made for him, his body was found
in the bathing tank in the garden, and it is supposed that, having gone there to wash himself,
he was seized with a fit and fell in.
Rate of mortality.
5. The death-rate calculated on the daily average number of lunatics only amounts to
4.75, and is, with the single exception of 1868, when the asy-
lum population was not half what it is now, the smallest
mortality which has occurred during the 11 years of which records are to be found, and is little
more than a third of the average death-rate for that period.
General health of lunatics.
6. This favourable result may be partly due to the element of chance, and it is certainly
greatly owing to the very healthy character of the year ;
but something may also fairly be attributed to the more scru-
pulous attention to everything bearing on the health of the lunatics, including their regular occu-
pation and amusement. Looking at the comparatively large average number of sick in hospi-
tal, it might be supposed that the general health of the asylum had been worse than in former
years, but this is by no means the case : on the contrary, it has been exceptionally good ,—
diarrhœa and dysentery, so common in former years, having been very rare, and cases of debility
with dropsical swellings having been almost unknown. The apparently large sick list is
simply due to the greater care which has been taken to enter all cases of illness, however
trifling, in the hospital register, as the Deputy Surgeon-General, in his annual inspections, has
so often had to direct attention to the very large proportion of deaths to total treated in hospital ;
his inference being that diseases were only detected when too far advanced for treatment. It
appears to me, however, that as lunatics in an asylum are all more or less under treatment,
the death-rate should be calculated on the total population as in hospitals and dispensaries, not
on the daily average sick or even on the daily number of lunatics. Calculated in this way, the
death-rate of the asylum for the past year would only be 2.85 per cent.
Number of lunatics at end of year.
7. The number of lunatics remaining on 31st Decem-
ber was 90, or 15 more than the previous year; and as the
Lahore Asylum is now full, it is probable that the population of this asylum will rapidly
increase.
Criminal lunatics.
8. The number of criminal lunatics has very largely increased during the year, 6 remained
from previous year and 14 have been admitted, making a
total of 20, of whom 3 were discharged to stand their trials,
1 was sent to Lahore Central Jail by orders of Government as before stated, 2 died, and 14
remained on 31st December.
These criminal lunatics are a source of constant anxiety, as some of them are of a dangerous
character ; and as there is no separate accommodation for them, they are obliged to be mixed
up with the other lunatics. One of them is so dangerous that he cannot be allowed to go near
the other lunatics without handcuffs, and even then he has to be closely watched. Happily no
accident has hitherto occurred, but the want of separate accommodation is a perpetual cause
of uneasiness.
Caste of lunatics.
9. Of the admissions and re-admissions, 39 were Hindus, 21 were Muhammadans, 4 belong
to other castes, and 1 was a European.
Mr. H., European lunatic.
10. The last-mentioned lunatic was Mr. H., an Irishman by birth. On most subjects
he could talk in a perfectly sane manner; but he believed
that he was the Duke of Normandy, Grand Duke of
the Grand Duchy of Lancaster, &c., &c., and a General in the British Army. His pay as
General he believed to have been appropriated by Her Majesty and spent on oranges. He
was bitterly rancorous against the British Government, and had been publicly made a Mussal-
man in the Jama Masjid here under the name of Ahmed Din, intending afterwards to make
his way to Kabul and offer his services to the Amir; but he was arrested by the police and
ultimately sent to the asylum. His Mussalman friends were annoyed at being thus deprived of
their proselyte, and gave some trouble by their visits, and by their threats to memorialize Govern-
ment on the iniquity of making a man out to be insane because he had turned Muhammadan.
After a residence of two months Mr. H. was transferred to the Colaba Asylum, and his depar-
ture was a relief, for on more than one occasion he managed in some way or another to send
out fictitious extracts from the newspapers, which had been lent to him, giving grossly
exaggerated accounts of the progress of the Russians in Central Asia, and calling upon all
Mussalmans to aid them on their arrival in Peshawar, which he predicted might shortly be looked
for. At that time such news circulating through an excitable population like that of Delhi
might have done much harm ; but it is believed that most of his notes fell into the hands of
the police.