Part I.]
GENERAL REPORT.
9
adding the bad and indifferent together, the percentages were, for males 60,
and for females 72. This comparison is interesting when viewed in relation
to the greater death-rate which has prevailed amongst females.
Types of insanity.
The types of insanity of the inmates of the asylums are shown in Table
No. II. Chronic mania contributed by far the most of those who were treated,
but more than half the admissions were for acute mania : chronic mania coiming
second in order, by contributing about half as many as the former: chronic de-
mentia shows a large number treated, but only ranks fifth in the order of admis-
sions. The type of insanity as affected by race is one upon which more infor-
mation might with advantage be collected. The Superintendent of the Rangoon
asylum makes the following remarks upon the subject. He writes :—
Distinctive features
of the insanity of
the Burmans.
"I have found that insane Burmans are a most intractable class, and must be admitted to
be more so than the ordinary inmates of asylums of other nationalities. In all the cases,
as a rule, at some period or another of their residence, violence is a marked feature of the
insanity. Burmans are like Celts—clannish; they associate and combine together for mischief;
they are much given to violence, planning deliberate attacks. They are often wilfully de-
structive of clothing, bedding, and furniture : they defy discipline, &c. They incite misconduct
in others, and are very often filthy; and in one or two cases common prudence demanded their
separation for lengthened periods. The overseer has often said that he would rather have the
care of twelve natives of India than one Burman suffering from recurrent mania. Indeed, so vio-
lent are they sometimes, that the whole establishment of peons has to be relegated to attend to
these cases alone, thus seriously impeding the work of the institution and facilitating es-
capes."
Table No. III tabulates the information which the reports contain as to
the causation of insanity; as heretofore, physical greatly preponderate over
moral causes; but the Rangoon asylum, and it alone, shows a different result.
Dr. Griffith thus explains this curious exception :—
Causation of insanity
generally.
Causation in Bur-
mans.
" In natives of India, insanity is invariably brought on by those causes of physical diseases
to which the lower orders are chiefly exposed—abuse of ganja and opium, over-work of body,
and insufficient food; whereas in the Burman the cause is oftener attributed to over-tension of
the emotional faculties, the result of wounded pride, domestic troubles, and grief."
CASTES.
Hindus ...
Mahomedans ...
Christians or East In-
dians ...
Europeans ...
Buramus ...
TOTAL ...
CAUSES.
Ganjah.
12
3
...
...
10
25
Spirits.
2
...
1
2
3
8
Opium.
3
2
...
...
11
16
Fear.
3
...
1
2
11
17
Anger.
5
C 1
...
...
12
23
Grief.
6
8
...
...
38
52
Unknown.
5
2
1
0
21
31
TOTAL
TREATED.
36
21
3
0
106
172
From the above table it will be seen that the cause of insanity in a total of
106 Burmans undergoing treatment was grief in 38 cases; anger in 12; fear 11;
opium 11; spirits 3; ganjah 10, and in unknown causes 21. These results were
recorded on admission of the patients, and it has been since ascertained that
numbers of them registered in the column "unknown" could be placed in those
headed " grief" and " anger."
It appears, then, that domestic troubles, women and money, have more to
do with bringing on insanity in Burmans than other causes.
Hemp and opium as
a cause in Bengal.
The preparations of hemp and opium were the causes of the insanity of
nearly one-third of the total number of lunatics treated in all the asylums
of this presidency. Dr. Wise, whose previous reports have given much valu-
able information concerning the production of insanity by ganja, now writes of
the Dacca asylum:—
Dacca asylum.
The abuse of ganjah still heads the list of physical causes. In 29.16 per cent. of the total
treated, the insanity is referred to this head, although every means have been employed to dis-
tinguish the habitual from the occasional smoker. Of the 102 males admitted and re-admit-
ted, 30, or 29.2 per cent., were represented to have become insane from ganjah; while of the
females, two out of 25 had become mad from the same cause. One male criminal was admitted
whose insanity was referred to gaujah; but he had been regarded as mad for five years, and for
six months before committing the theft with which he was charged he had been kept bound
with ropes. Eighty-three per cent. of the males were Hindus, and only 16 per cent. Maho-
c