12
LUNATIC ASYLUMS FOR NATIVES.
[ Part I.
Mechanical restraint.
Mechanical restraint has been almost nominal in its employment through-
out the year. The Surgeon-General desires that restraint be employed as sparing-
ly as possible, whilst he would allow every latitude to medical officers to treat
cases according to their judgment and experience. Only in two asylums was
mechanical restraint resorted to, viz., Dullunda and Lucknow (there are no
records on the point for Lahore) 39 persons were restrained 130 times at
Dullunda, and 29 persons 62 times at Lucknow. It is clear that a very
modified form of restraint was employed, and that under the immediate
supervision of the Superintendent. Dr. Shircore of the Moydapore Asylum
writes:—
No form of mechanical coercion is used in this asylum. When any one of the inmates
gets excited and violent, he is taken to his room; the charpoy is removed, and the door, which
has a wooden panel below and iron bars above, is locked. In the generality of cases they
quiet down in an hour or two, when they are taken out and after a good bath sent to work
again.
Criminal lunatics.
Special asylum for
There was a daily average strength of 398.6 criminal lunatics confined in
the asylums of the presidency, being a ratio of 17.5 per cent. of the average
population. Everywhere the criminal population of asylums is increasing.
In Lower Bengal, the census of the 31st December 1872, compared with that
of 1st of January 1863, shows an increase of about 149 per cent. The question
of providing a special asylum for this class of lunatics has long been under
consideration, and the idea would probably have been carried out by the Govern-
ment of Bengal, but for the financial pressure occasioned by the famine. It
was not, however, intended to establish an asylum for criminals alone, but for
all criminal and dangerous lunatics. The Surgeon-General has expressed
himself in favour of a separate asylum for criminals under certain rules and
conditions. The Superintendent of the Patna asylum states that those who
have been convicted of murder, or attempt at murder, appear to him to be
fitter inmates for jails than asylums. In other words, it may be taken that his
experience leads him to believe in the advantages of a convict lunatic asylum.
Dr. Cayley of Cuttack relates his experience as follows. Whilst seeing the
necessity for a special asylum, he apparently has been led to adopt the middle
view of approving the idea of an asylum for all dangerous insanes, whether
criminal or not, but excluding from it criminals whose lunacy is of ordinary
types:—
The criminal lunatics have undergone little change since the previous year; 13 remained
one was admitted, one died, and none discharged. They constitute 24 per cent. of the asylum
inmates. Of the criminals, two or three have never shown any symptom of mental derange¬
ment, and are to all intents and purposes sane, and perhaps never were really insane, though
they committed most grievous crimes. Such cases, which are probably common in all asylums,
require, I think, exceptional treatment, and strict—perhaps penal—discipline. There is in this
asylum no greater proportion of dangerous or violent cases among the criminal than among
the other lunatics; in fact, at present the only really violent or dangerous lunatics are non-
criminal ; and I think that lunatics of common type, though they should happen to have
committed some crime, may just as well be treated in an ordinary asylum as transferred to ;
special criminal asylum. I think, however, that it would be very desirable to remove from
small asylums the constantly violent and dangerous lunatics, whether criminal or not, as they
greatly interfere with the treatment of the rest.
Individual respon-
sibility during insani-
ty from ganja.
Dr. Simpson alludes to the difficult moral, although settled, medico-legal
point, as to whether persons who have committed serious crimes whilst under
the influence of ganja ought, or ought not, to be held responsible for their
actions. He writes :—
Murders are often committed under the influence of intoxicating drugs, especially bhang
and ganja, which frequently give rise to a state in all respects identical with acute mania.
The effects of the drug may be more or less transient. The question is—should such persons
on recovery escape the punishment of their crime on the ground of insanity ? It seems to
me unreasonable that they should, when the same crime committed under the influence of
alcohol would not pass unpunished.
One or two of the reports contain some details regarding the origin and
history of the insanity of criminal lunatics. A thorough analysis of such
cases could not fail to be useful.
Special drugs
employed.
Dr. Cockburn reports that he derived much benefit from chloral and
bromide of potassium in the treatment of the insanes at Benares.