REPORT
ON
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BURMA
FOR THE TRIENNIUM 1906-1908.
Statement I.
Accommodation and population.—On the 1st of January 1905, the total
population of patients in the Rangoon Lunatic Asylum amounted to 445, whilst
the accommodation available was for 427. On the last day of the year 1906, the
total population had risen to 493. It was consequently essential to find accommo-
dation for a portion of the population elsewhere. I visited Minbu, where there
was a disused jail, and recommended such economical changes as would suffice
for the temporary accommodation of a number of criminal lunatics. I found that
the total accommodation would suffice for 107 patients. After alterations in
structure had been effected, and the sanction of the Government of India had
been obtained by the Government of Burma, the first transfer of lunatics was
made on the 25th April 1907. On the last day of 1908, the total of criminal
lunatics confined at Minbu amounted to 111, a number already in excess of the
calculated space available, and in the Rangoon Lunatic Asylum (whose accommo-
dation space had been increased for 448 inmates) the total population amounted
to 476. The total lunatic population of the Province, therefore, on the 31st
December 1908, amounted to 587 ; showing a total increase of 121 of Asylum
inmates, when compared with the year 1905. Irrespective, therefore, of the long
recognized unfit nature, for fulfilment of its functions, of the structure of the
existing Rangoon Lunatic Asylum, the necessity for one or more new lunatic
asylums for the Province is very apparent.
2. In 1906 preliminary plans were furnished by me, largely based on sugges-
tions as to the area and character of buildings made in a Report by Lieutenant-
Colonel Bell, I.M.S., the then Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, subsequent
to a visit by him, on deputation by Government, to various Lunatic Asylums in India.
During my absence on furlough in 1908, I understand that modifications in the
interests of economy were suggested by my locum tenens, Lieutenant-Colonel
Frenchman, I.M.S. In the meantime, it is probable, having regard to the
financial condition of the Local Government, that even were economy practised
to a point of tenuity, there would still be difficulty in procuring funds for this
important work. If this be the case, I believe it will shortly be necessary to adapt
further existing buildings in some suitable station.
3. The overcrowding has specially occurred amongst criminal male lunatics,
notwithstanding the relief afforded by the temporary Asylum at Minbu. The
European Section of the Asylum has also suffered. Thus, the Superintendent
reports as follows :—" The European sections are very overcrowded. Six rooms
only are provided for European males, but, as there are at present eleven European
male inmates, I am obliged to keep five in ordinary cells at night. These eleven
patients have no common sitting room, and the only sitting accommodation
provided for them is in the verandah common to the six rooms referred to. In
1907, a paling was erected by asylum labour around this section, in order to give
some privacy, but the enlargement of the section and the provision of a few good
quarters is urgently required. One or two similar rooms are also needed on the
female side for Europeans. There are at present six European female insanes in
this section, and only proper quarters for two."
4. Necessarily, in view of the fact that a new asylum is contemplated, every
effort has been made to limit expenditure on new works, or repairs, of the existing
buildings. Nevertheless, it has been found necessary to ask for slight
changes in the structure of certain cells in the interest of safety of patients, and a
modification of a former store has enabled increased accommodation of females to
be obtained. At the present moment, owing to its being found impossible to