4
care exercised in seeing that it is actually worn there is little doubt the
freedom from an excess of sickness at that time is attributable.
Food.
16. The food is sufficient and indeed ample, and always of good
quality; great care is exercised in its purchase, and the
cooking is daily frequently inspected, and the whole is
much appreciated by the patients. Extra diet is given liberally to those
working more than the others and to those cases of acute mania, &c., which
require it. Excellent milk, under stringent supervision, is obtained from
a contractor and large quantities are used. Finally, the garden produces
an abundant supply of fresh vegetables during all times of the year for the
use of the patients.
Causes.
17. The determination of the causes of the insanity from which the
inmates suffer is a matter of extreme difficulty all over
the world and still more so in India. Here many of the
lunatics admitted are unknown people who have been found wandering about
the bazárs and from whom nothing can be learned, so that a large number have
to be returned as "cause unknown" while in many of those otherwise classed
this is probably supposition. The information received with these, usually
founded on vague police reports, is always inadequate and often at variance
with the statement of the relatives, or the men themselves on their recovery.
The schedule sent in with them usually bears every evidence of having
been filled up perfunctorily and rarely contains more than mere conjectures.
Indeed, the only reliable information is that obtained after their recovery
from the patients themselves or from the relatives, and these often show
a strong objection to reveal the true facts. There is a strong inclination
on the part of all to attribute many of the causes to the use of drugs,
charas, &c., and though some of these may be in error, the evidence is con-
clusive that, despite the opinion of some to the contrary, a large amount of
the insanity in this country may be correctly ascribed to their use. The
subject is well worthy of more extended study.
Heredity.
18. Among the poorer classes family history rarely goes back more than
one generation, and that of the female side is ignored
altogether, so that much helpful and interesting in-
formation as to the influence of heredity in mental disease in the country is
wholly unobtainable. Such is, of course, almost invariably absent from the
returns received with the patient on admission.
Occupation of patients
and manufactures.
19. Perhaps the most important part of the management of the
asylum is the provision of suitable labour for the inmates.
In some of the cases their insanity has for one of its
symptoms the utter refusal to do anything whatsoever, but in all the first
step towards recovery is taken when they can be induced to occupy them-
selves in some way, and the benefit both to themselves and coincidently to
the institution is incalculable. It would, of course, be impossible to work the
asylum with its present staff and at its present cost without a large number
of its inmates being employed in its actual maintenance, and thus the cooking,
cleaning, sweeping, washing, &c., employs a good number.
The large
garden also provides an excellent and healthy form of labour for many.
Some 35 acres surrounding the buildings are available for this purpose, and
the land which has for many years been neglected as unfit for cultivation is by
their efforts and proper supervision now transferred into the best and most pro-
ductive garden in the neighbourhood. The remainder of the inmates fit for
labour are employed within the walls in weaving, spinning and tailoring, and
mat-making, as a result of which every particle of clothing worn by the entire
asylum population is woven and made up in it, producing a large saving to
Government, while the sale of munj matting brings in a good profit. Both
these occupations afford extremely diversified forms of labour suitable for every
grade of health and intelligence and a most important means of treatment.
Nothing is more striking than to note the gradual improvement in a
man once induced to labour, or to see an acute maniac raving, shouting, gesticu-
lating, tearing everything within his reach, soften down, after a few days'
violent exercise at mulling blankets, into a quiet and reasonable patient. It is