Copy of INSPECTION REMARKS made by SURGEON-COLONEL A. STEPHEN
M.B., Principal Medical Officer and Sanitary Commissioner, Assat?i } on the
Tespur Lunatic Asylum, under date the *]th August 1897.
I VISITED the Asylum this morning and found that the barrack for criminal
prisoners had been so badly damaged during the earthquake that the inmates had to be
removed to another barrack. The cook-house was also considerably damaged. The
other buildings with ekra walls were very little, if at all, damaged.
Several surface drains have been filled up since my last visit. There should be
a drain on either side of the main path along the whole length of the enclosure.
All the wards were clean, the floors were dry, and no unpleasant smell was perceptible.
Arrangements should be made for cutting the grass on the different grass plots
in the compound. The ground in front of the cook-house was somewhat wet. A
pucca drain should be made from it to the drain outside the enclosure for the removal of
the cook-house water. There should also be a pucca platform near the cook-house, on
which the vessels containing the food of the inmates should be placed.
There were 95 male and 25 female lunatics in the Asylum. Most of them seemed
to be in a fairly good state of health. Thirty of the males were at work outside the
Asylum, and 47 were employed, to a greater or le>s extent, inside the enclosure. Of
the females, 5 were engaged in spinning and weaving, and 4 in husking rice.
There were 4 males and 1 female on the sick list ; 2 of the males were suffering
from ague, 1 from phthisis, and 1 from skin disease ; the female was suffering from
debility. There have been 56 admissions into hospital this year up to date. Of these,
18 were due to ague, 10 to diarrhoea, 6 to dysentery, and 8 to chicken-pox. Since the
1st of January there have been 6 deaths among the inmates. Two deaths were due
to phthisis, 1 to erysipelas, 1 to hald-dsdr, 1 to dysentery, and a lunatic was
drowned in the river during the earthquake on the 12th of June. Only 7 inmates died
during 1896, so that up to date the mortality has been much greater than it was
last year. The inmates are getting quinine and iron as a prophylactic, and in addition
to their ordinary ration, they get 1 chattack of flour in the early morning in the shape of
a chapati, with tea and milk.
Copy of the INSPECTION REMARKS on the Tespur Lunatic Asylum, dated the
\$th November 1897, by SURGEON-COLON 111 A. STEPHEN, M.B., Principal
Medical Officer and Sanitary Commissioner, Assam.
I INSPECTED the Lunatic Asylum on the 15th November 1897, in the company
of the Superintendent, Surgeon-Major Macnamara.
The compound was very clean and tidy, and most of the grass plots were in
good order. Most of the surface drains have been filled up ; there should be at least
two drains, one on either side of the main road.
The buildings were in a fairly good state of repair ; the damage done by the
earthquake to the criminal ward has been repaired. The roofs of most of the barracks
were in want of repairs ; arrangements are being made for rethatching six of the barrack
buildings during the cold-weather months.
The barrack rooms were very fairly clean. The floors of the male wards were
covered with sand. The floor of one of the female barracks was leeped, and the floor
of the other one in use was covered with sand. Lecping can be resorted to during the
dry months of the year, but the practice is objectionable during the rains, as, when
a floor is leeped during the rains, it does not become dry for several days. All the wards,
with the exception of the criminal ward, were free from smell. The criminal ward was
somewhat close, due to the blankets in use having been stained while in transit from
Bhagalpur. These blankets should be washed and thoroughly dried before they are
brought into use.
The latrines were in fairly good order ; the roofs should, however, be rethatched.
The floors were clean, and were covered with sand, as dry earth was not procurable,
A he latrines were nearly free from unpleasant smell.