Note on the Statistical Tables of the
Punjab Lunatic Asylum for the year
1910.
Statement I—Admissions, discharges, etc.
1. At the commencement of the year there were 513 males and 123
females, or a total of 636 patients, under
treatment in the asylum. The num-
bers admitted during the year were 150 males and 31 females, the figures
representing re-admissions being 12 and 5, respectively ; those discharged num-
bered 113, of which 89 were males and 24 females, and 80 males and 9 females
died during the year, resulting in a net reduction in the population of the asy-
lum of 21 patients, 19 of whom were males and 2 females.
Of the number discharged, 74 males and 21 females were returned as
cured ; 6 males were transferred to friends in an improved mental condition,
and 9 males and 3 females were otherwise discharged.
The percentage of those cured to the daily average strength was 15.03
and to admissions during the year 52.94 against 15.17 and 48.24, respectively,
in the preceding year.
Sickness and mortality.
2. The total number of patients treated in hospital during the
year was 604; of these 471 were
males and 133 were females. The
daily average number sick was 93.86, compared with 75.01 in 1909 and
47.31 in 1908 ; this increase may be ascribed to the large number of chro-
nic cases, which were remaining in hospital at the end of the previous year,
suffering from diarrhœa, dysentry, ankylostomiasis—the result of infection from
former mud-eating habits—and tuberculosis. The largest number of admissions
during the year were—ague, 95 ; debility, 55 ; diarrhœa, 50 ; dysentery, 35 ;
abscess of the connective tissue, 32 ; ankylostomiasis, 27, and tubercle of the
lung, 25.
Of the 89 deaths during the year, which are attributable to the above
causes, 16 occurred from tubercle of the lung; 15 from ankylostomiasis;
14 from dysentery and 12 from diarrhœa.
With the opening of the new hospital there are already signs of im-
provement in the general health of the inmates of the asylum. It is now
possible, with the increased accommodation provided, to completely segregate
all cases of tubercle and mud-eating and bowel affections, and by this means,
combined with the rigid separation of the clothing and incineration of the
excreta, it is hoped there will be a marked and steady advance in the general
health of the population.
The investigation into the etiology of bowel complaints by Major W. C. H.
Forster, I.MS., Professor of Pathology, Lahore Medical College, which was
begun last year is being continued, but up to the present no report as to the
result or conclusions arrived at has been received owing to his not being able
to get away from his ordinary duties at the College.
Statement II—Criminal lunatics.
3. The number of patients of this class admitted during the year was
30, of whom 27 were males and 3 fe-
males; of the 27 males, 3 were re-
admitted after having been discharged. Twelve males and 1 female were dis-
charged or transferred and 13 males and 1 female died, leaving 133 males
and 12 females, or a total of 145 patients, under treatment at the close of the
year. This number is the same as last year, except that there is 1 male patient
less and 1 female more.
There was only one serious case of escape from the asylum during the
year of a notorious criminal lunatic, Bulanda, but he has since returned of his
own accord and given himself up to the asylum authorities. The occurrence
can only be ascribed to actual connivance or gross carelessness on the part of
the attendants concerned, and they have all been punished accordingly.