3
poor, unsuitable class offered themselves for engagement. Sanction was, however,
given on the 3rd December, 1907, to an increase in their actual number, and a
material augmentation in their rate of pay, which would be now a very
fair one, were it not for the unprecedented rise in the price of labour in
Lahore lately, and it cannot honestly be said that as yet a great improve-
ment has resulted ; it is difficult to fill vacancies with suitable men, and those
we obtain in addition to being like most of their race, singularly wanting in
sympathy and feeling for the patients, are as a rule nondescripts who cannot
obtain employment elsewhere, and who are absolutely wanting in any interest
in the poor unfortunate beings entrusted to their care, and who require con-
stant and rigid supervision.
Female attendants.
11. The female insanes are, however, fortunate in being entrusted to the
care of four Franciscan nuns as matrons
whose services are all the more appre-
ciated as the only class of native woman to be obtained as attendant is immeasur-
ably inferior even to those among the men and who are wanting in even the
rudiments of intelligence or energy. Female patients, it may be here re-
marked, cannot be induced to labour—a few, a very few will open thread or
spin, a still smaller number will aid in caring for the others, and as a result
the time of the majority being otherwise unoccupied is devoted largely to
quarrelling with one another and to an amount of vociferation, abuse and
energy of destruction that far surpasses anything ever seen among the men.
Amusements, &c.
12. Throughout both asylums great pains have been taken to procure shady
gardens in the several compounds, and
though the destructive habits of many
of the patients has always rendered this very difficult a fair measure of success
has been attained, and the areas are now very shady, green and even pleasant.
Means for gymnastic exercises have been provided though they are, it must
be confessed, not much used ; a native paper is taken in ; at all the groat festivals
distribution of special diet, " sweet rice," sweetmeats, &c., are made ; a magic
lantern and gramophone have been provided ; jugglers and rag doll performers
are from time to time had in ; the men have games of various descriptions ;
tobacco is allowed them; a special allowance of Rs. 10 monthly is divided
as rewards among the steady workers, and a contractor is allowed to keep a
small shop at which they spend this or any private money provided by re-
lations, &c., and in short everything possible is done to render the existence
of the inmates as comfortable as possible and the various privileges are much
appreciated ; as much freedom is allowed them as the dangerous character of
the large majority will permit of, and it may reasonably be claimed that they
are as comfortable as they can be well made and certainly far more so than
they would be in their own homes where personal experience assures one that
their condition is that of great misery and constant mechanical restraint.
Sickness.
13. As is usual among insanes a large proportion are always " bodily "
sick, usually some 17 to 20 per cent.
The diseases are of a varied character,
though bowel complaints, pneumonia and respiratory diseases, make up the
majority, ranking next to malaria, which is of course as in the sane population the
most common of all. Still in this particular it may be remarked that thanks to
good housing, sufficient clothing and supervision the actual incidence of this
latter disease is actually less than in those living outside in the immediate neigh-
bourhood, among the attendants, for example, who like most of their race
neglect the simplest precautions.
Mortality.
14. The death-rate has usually averaged yearly about 10 to 11 per cent.
which is that always found among
insanes in Europe. The autumn
and winter of 1907-08 were, however, extremely unhealthy all over the " Punjab "
and the amount of sickness among the inmates of the asylum rose in
proportion and to aggravate the mortality resulting from this, in October
and November 1907 an outbreak of cholera " sicca" of a most unusually
virulent and fatal character, and on which a special report has already
been submitted, broke out in the asylum, producing 26 deaths and raising
the rate that year to over 17 per cent., the highest yet known since