2
During each of the years of the triennium under review there was some
difficulty as regards accommodation for criminal males. The overcrowding prior
to the construction of a new ward in 1913 was relieved to a certain extent by
keeping a portion of the criminals in the non-criminal part of the asylum at
night, as in the previous three years, vide letter No. 2778D., dated the 8th
October 1909, of the Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, Bengal. After the
completion of the new ward it was devoted to the use of criminals solely. Thus
the capacity for male criminals was raised from 50 to 90. The accommodation
for criminal males is still insufficient as their daily average keeps increasing,
but no ill-effect resulted from the location of the latter sort at night in the non-
criminal verandahs. During the day the lunatics are about the asylum grounds
except in special cases.
7. Sickness and mortality.—The total number admitted to the asylum
hospital was 173 in 1912, 275 in 1913 and 294 in 1914 ; the daily average sick
being 12.56, 17.69 and 23.96 and percentage of constantly sick to daily average
strength 5.09, 6.43 and 8.30 respectively. Of the numbers treated 147 were
cured in 1912, 223 in 1913 and 255 in 1914 while 26, 41 ( including one case
of homicidal strangulation) and 40 respectively, died; the percentage of deaths
to daily average strength being 10.56 in 1912, 14.90 in 1913 and 13.86 in 1914,
an average of 13.21 against 7.40 in the previous triennium.
The marked increase in the number of hospital admissions from 173 in 1912
to 275 in 1913 was partly due to increased average strength, partly to the bad
health in which a large number of new patients was received and to the advanced
age of some. There was also another factor at work—the flood of 1913 which
seriously affected the asylum grounds and wards and its health. Another cause
which affected health was the delay (five months) of the Public Works Depart-
ment in fixing a pump in our well. An inferior much-handled water-supply
affected the health of the lunatics to some extent. The admissions to this
asylum in bad health were 29 in 1912, 51 in 1913 and 67 in 1914 as against
13, 15 and 16 in the previous three years.
Dysentery was responsible for twenty-six admissions 18 in 1912, twenty-
seven in 1913 and thirty-seven in 1914 with 4, 4 and 3 deaths respectively.
These cases were treated with injections of Emetin Hydrochlor and Albargin
Enemata according as they were amæbic or bacillary in origin, but there were
some cases of mixed infection and some with tubercular complications.
For Diarrhœa seven were admitted in 1912, 35 in 1913 and 18 in 1914, with
one, six and nil deaths respectively.
For anaemia seven were admitted in 1912, 38 (mostly from Anky-
lostomiasis) in 1913, and one in 1914 (when Ankylostomiasis was returned as
such). The deaths were three, nine and nil respectively.
The cause of the dysentery, diarrhœa and ankylostomiasis has largely
been the coprophagic and geophagic habit of many lunatics before and after
admission. The excreta of 385 patients were examined, that is, all cases in the
asylum, with the following important results in 1914:—
Ova of Ankylostomiasis ... ... ...
Do. Trichocephalus dispar ... ... ...
Do. Ascaris Lumbricoides ... ... ...
Do. Tænia
...
...
...
Oxyuris Vermicularis ... ... ...
Rhabdonema Strangyloides ... ... ...
Motile Amæbæ ... ... ...
53.50 per cent.
38.61 do.
61.56 do.
3.63 do.
3.63 do.
3.89 do.
13.77 do.
It is very difficult to cure or prevent this enormous proportion of entozoal
disease when segregation and constant watching are impossible with the limited
number of keepers available. The large increase of diarrhœa in 1913 may partly
be attributed to want of a good water-supply because of our pump being out of
order for months, in the hands of the Public Works Department.