4
REPORT ON THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BURMA FOR THE TRIENN1UM 1906—08.
total mortality of the Province in Lunatic Asylums was, 8.67 and 7.42 per cent.of
daily average strength.*
13. In regard to death causation, Captain Shaw, I.M.S., the present
Superintendent, draws attention to the fact that of two deaths due to general
paralysis of the insane, one was a European and the other a Burman, and adds
" the latter case is of interest, as it has been supposed that the disease was
unknown among Natives of the East." Having regard to recent suggestions of
the microbic origin of this disease, this exceptional instance is also of etiological
importance.
14. Treatment of patients.,—Both at Minbu and Rangoon, efforts are made
to aid moral treatment by the affording of amusements. In Rangoon, pwès
and gramaphone entertainments are specially appreciated. These have been
rendered possible by voluntary public subscription funds. This will be aided in
future by a contribution which has been promised by Government, as there has
been of late a falling off of subscriptions.
15. In regard to employment in Minbu, agriculture and garden operations are
chiefly trusted to, whilst in Rangoon, these are supplemented by weaving, paddy-
grinding, coir-pounding, and mat-making.
16. In the Rangoon Asylum, the use of drugs for the securing of restraint is
adopted as little as possible. In instances of wild motor excitement, the hypoder-
mic injection of Hyoscine hydrobromide has been utilized, whilst sulphonal, trional
chloral hydrate, chloretone and paraldehyde are employed in suitable cases.
17. In the case of 39 patients, nasal feeding was found necessary on an average
of six days per patient. In the case of one patient, it was found necessary for a
total of 33 days.
Statement I.
18. Results of treatment.—In the case of Minbu, where alone criminal
lunatics are dealt with, the question of discharge " cured '' or '' relieved " is guided
both by medical reasons and legal procedure. Accordingly, the results are hardly
comparable to those obtained in the mixed population of Civil and Criminal
Lunatics found in the Rangoon Asylum ; nor are these, again, comparable with
results secured in Asylums in Great Britain, where owing to the quantity and quality
of staff, patients secure more individual moral and medical treatment. The result
at Minbu might be stated shortly as follows : of the total average daily population
of 81.50 from date of opening (April 1907) to the end of 1908, the '' cured "
amounted to 6, and " relieved " to 2.
Statement I.
19. In Rangoon, the results for the triennium are exhibited in the following
table :—
Year.
1906 ... ... ...
1907 ... ... ...
1908 ... ... ...
Daily average
population.
474.69
469.44
475.79
Cured.
36
33
39
Relieved.
62
46
38
20. Diet.—No important change has been made in the diet. The Asylum
gardens were the source of entire supply of vegetables for diet purposes in the
case of Rangoon, in 1908, whilst in the previous year, 11/7th, and in 1906, 1/6th
of the total was supplied by the contractor.
21. In 1907, I procured soy beans from Singapore. They were sown in the
Rangoon Asylum, and, with the permission of the Inspector-General of Prisons,
in Central Jails. No success was secured. I then ascertained that the seed
supplied had gone through a process, conducted by the Chinese for dietetic purposes,
inimical to germination. In 1908, I again procured (from official money) soy
beans seed from Singapore, and supplied the Rangoon Asylum with a certain
* The following are the rates of mortality per cent. in Lunatic Asylums in
Burma ... ... ... ... ... ...
Bengal ... ... ... ... ...
Eastern Bengal and Assam ... ... ...
Bombay ... ... ... ... ...
Madras ... ... ... ... ...
Punjab ... ... ... ... ...
United Provinces ... ... ... ... ...
Central Provinces
...
...
...
...
...
India, in 1908 :—
7.42
7.63
8.54
8.9
9.1
11.6
12.62
12.84