2
class the accommodation has been sufficient and we have never had more than 6
patients in the European quarters; but the numbers of ordinary native male
patients have gradually augmented and are steadily increasing, as the following
figures show :—
Total nnmber of ordinary native male, patients in the asylum on the last day of each month,
the accommodation baing for 458.
January ... ... ... ... ... ...
February ... ... ... ... ... ...
March ... ... ... ... ... ...
April ... ... ... ... ... ...
May ... ... ... ... ... ...
June
...
...
...
...
...
...
July ... ... ... ... ... ...
August ... ... ... ... ... ...
September
...
...
...
...
...
...
October ... ... ... ... ... ...
November ... ... ... ... ... ...
December ... ... ... ... ... ...
1903.
401
400
404
407
412
418
417
419
426
429
422
414
1904.
409
417
422
416
425
427
431
433
436
442
441
454
1905.
461
458
461
474
477
477
479
481
482
472
472
470
Throughout 1905 the asylum was overcrowded as these figures show,
but they do not indicate the degree to which this overcrowding is felt. The
hospital section, instead of being the largest enclosure* as it ought to be, is the
smallest, and the extent to which its capacity is taxed is shown by the fact that,
in this enclosure, with housing provision for 55, we have been compelled to place
70 to 90 patients every night during the past year. In the hot weather
selected patients can be located in the verandahs : during the present cold weather
the excess population has been housed in touts Without any uutoward result.
Proposals for extension.
8. Proposals for the extension of the asylum have been submitted for
approval and take the form of a new hospital enclosure.
Along with this are included the following very neces-
Hury additions:—(1) compounding, dispensary and operating rooms; (2)
pathological laboratory; (3) tubercular enclosure ; (4) new house for the
Superintendent: and various other minor details, such as a Thrush's disin-
feotor, &c. It will also bo necessary to extend the area of the asylum
property ; and with this an attempt is to be made to increase the productive
nuture of the asylum by the establishment of a grass and dairy farm, which ought
to be thoroughly successful and which will bo a profitable venture if the work
is placed under adequate skilled supervision. There is no question but that for
the majority of our patients agricultural work is best suited to their capabilities.
Criminal hunatics.
9. Criminal lunatics are still treated in this institution along with non-
criminals. I have represented this matter officially, for I am
of opinion that criminal insanes should be retained in a
special institution by themselves. India is, I may say, backward in this respect,
for even a comparatively young administration like that of Egypt is in possession
of a special asylum for criminals. The complete and absolute separation of
criminal from non-criminal insanes is especially necessary in this country when
wo consider that 70 per cent. of all criminal lunatics in India have either com-
mitted or attempted murder. Of the male criminal lunatics in tips asylum 00 per
cent. have actually committed murders. The proportion of mule criminals to
non-criminals in the asylum is one to four : among the women it is one to elevon-
Thoro is a distinct but not, as yet, marked tendency to the malingering of
insanity by criminals and the attention of all Superintendents of Jails should be
drawn to this fact.
The causes of insanity
among males.
10. Among men, the predominating causes of insanity are, as a reference
to table VII will show, churns smoking and bhang drinking.
Major Ewens has pointed out in an interesting paper in the
Indian, Medical Gazette that, as a cause of mania, indulgence in Indian hemp is
responsible for, at least, one-fourth of the cases of mania admitted here, and were
we to obtain more perfect records with our patients the proportion would bo higher.
Oases have boon admitted during the past year which demonstrate that single bouts
of bhang drinking or charas smoking in persons who have not been previously