5
By sanction of the Chief Commissioner a large stock of grain was stored up in June,
when the rate was lower than the bazaar rate. The plan has answered well, and the stock of
grain stored up has not deteriorated to any great extent or become mouldy. It will probably
be better to purchase the grain in the extreme hot months and pack it in " dolees" when quite
dry. It will then be less liable to be eaten by weavils or to grow mouldy.
Alterations and improve-
ments.
The Judicial Commissioner's Court has been added to the asylum premises, and the neces-
sary alterations to put it into a fit state to serve as a male ward for
lunatics have been sanctioned and are being carried out. To enclose
this building within the asylum limits, it has been found necessary
to pull down part of the wall and railings erected in 1892, and rebuild it so as to enclose the
Judicial Commissioner's Court. At present we are obliged to use the west bungalow (recently
enclosed within the female enclosure) for a few male lunatics, and the arrangement has had
the sanction of the Deputy Surgeon-General. The new ward is calculated to accommodate
35 lunatics. Part of it will be utilized as an office, and part as a surgery and dispensing room,
and the old office can be given up for use as a hospital ward for contagious cases, for which
purpose it is convenient as it is next to the present hospital. The Chief Commissioner has
sanctioned small alterations in the east and west bungalows, by which one of the side rooms
in each of these wards can be shut off and fitted up for the reception of European and Eurasian
lunatics, one for males and one for females.
The main supply of vegatables has been produced from the lower garden and must
continue to be so for sometime, until by a sufficient supply of water, and by improvements in
the soil, the new garden recently made within the railed enclosure is better adapted to grow a
sufficient stock of vegetables. At present the water supply is quite insufficient, and the soil
is rocky and bad, and although this is gradually being removed and good soil and manure put
in it, this will take a long time. The present water reservoir is capacious enough for drinking
and washing purposes, but not for irrigation. More water could be readily got if a pump
were attached to the well within the enclosure above noted as recently added to the asylum
limits, and this being within the asylum enclosure, we could utilize the labour of the criminal
lunatics to work the pump.
The annual repairs have been carried out.
Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. McKay held charge until the 25th November 1893,
and Surgeon-Major G. F. A. Harris throughout the remainder of the year.
First Class Hospital Assistant Sheikh Abdul Aziz was the Deputy Superintendent up to
the 9th July, and First Class Hospital Assistant Abdul Majid Khan held charge for the
remainder of the year. The latter has much skill and experience in the management of the
lunatics and is unremitting in his attention to their well-being, and I am very well satisfied
with the manner in which he has performed his duties.
The usual monthly visitors' meetings were held, and the half-yearly inspections of criminal
lunatics on the 9th January and 12th July 1893.
The asylum was inspected by the Chief Commissioner on the 11th August 1893, and by
the Deputy Surgeon-General on the 14th February, 22nd June, 20th and 26th July 1893.
NAGPUR :
The 21st January 1894.
G. F. A. HARRIS, SURGEON-MAJOR, I. M. S.,
Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.