10
LUNATIC ASYLUMS FOR NATIVES.
[Part I.
medans. Among the five Mahomedans, however, two were Hindus by birth. The two fe-
males admitted from this cause were Mahomedan prostitutes. Tea coolies are notorious ganja-
smokers, and of the nine admitted, all had their insanity referred to the abuse of this weed.
Dr. Cayley (Cuttack), whilst doubting whether ganja is not accredited
with more evil than is its due, admits that—
A single overdose will, in one unaccustomed to its use, excite an attack of insanity,
which will last for several weeks, and it is highly probable that its continued use may in time
induce permanent mental disease.
Ganja and other intoxicating drugs constitute 65 per cent. of the known
causes of insanity in Lower Bengal.
Dr. Rice of Jubbulpore is of opinion that ganja is very frequently unjust-
ly accused of being the cause of insanity. He observes that the ryot class
forms the greatest number of admissions, but that the ryots are not addicted
to the use of ganja, and he is convinced—
That ganja is no more than an accidental—possibly an exciting—cause of insanity in one
already predisposed, and that the lunatic who smoked ganja—let us say even to excess—has in
this done nothing so very peculiar, nothing so very different from what a vast number of his
countrymen do, whose sanity no one thinks of questioning. A cause of an exceptional event
to be of value must be likewise itself exceptional.
To sustain the first part of this argument it would be necessary to show
that the proportion of ryots to the total population of their class who inhabit
the districts whence the Jubbulpore asylum population is drawn, is, relatively
to the numbers admitted, not greater than that of the other classes who are
treated. The returns of this asylum record that of 36 cases of insanity due to
physical causes, 32 were the production of ganja and bhang. In the resolu-
tion upon the Surgeon-General's report to the Bengal Government, it is stated
that " the Lieutenant Governor is giving special attention to the best means
for further augmenting the check (which has been imposed of late years appar-
ently with some success) on the consumption of this most deleterious drug"
(hemp).
Hereditary origin.
Remarking how few cases of insanity are accredited with an hereditary
origin, Dr. Wise remarks that—
Although lunacy is a bar to inheritance among Hindus, it is not among Mussulmans.
Among neither is it a bar to marriage : and a son of insane parents, whether he be himself in-
sane or not, finds no difficulty beyond paying a larger dowry to the girl's parents, in procuring
a wife. Of late years it has become the custom for Hindus to make enquiries regarding the exist-
ence of leprosy, insanity, and epilepsy in the family with which a marriage is contemplated ;
but among Mahomedans leprosy is the only disease objected to.
Observations by Dr.
Corbyn at Bareilly.
Dr. Corbyn, the Superintendent of the Bareilly asylum, has evidently paid
much attention to the causation of the lunacy of those under his charge. He
gives the following interesting details.
Statement No. 13 shows the causes of insanity : 95 cases are put down to churrus and
bhang, 2 to opium, 28 to epilepsy, 4 to hereditary, 6 to congenital causes and paralysis, 16 to
exposure to the sun. 35 to grief, and 165 to causes unknown.
Cranial injury as a
cause.
I have observed that there are about 34 patients in the asylum in whom the cause of
mental disease might be traced to cranial injury.
Onanism.
There are about 40 patients addicted to onanism, which I consider to be a predisposing
cause to idiotcy. The names of these are all registered,- they are separated and watched as
much as possible, but in spite of every care and treatment, they still continue to practise this
fatal vice, which has already deprived them of reason and is hurrying them to their graves.
Relation (between
menstrual) function
and insanity.
Among the females I have paid special attention this year to the subject of the relation
between menstrual irregularities and insanity, and I have made the European matron,
who is an educated professional midwife, take particular notice of the women at this period,
and bring them under my observation.
We have found about 22 in whom menstrual irregularity is probably the existing cause of
insanity; all these have their catamenia either in very small, or in immoderate quantities, and
at those periods though they may be in the intervals quiet and well behaved, they generally
become violently excited, attack the female keepers, use abusive and obscene language, make
indecent overtures to their companions, expose their persons and have often been detected ma-
nipulating other females.
Among the epileptic females I have observed that the fits are much more violent and fre-
quent at this period.
There are 14 idiots in this ward, who, although they are beyond the age of puberty, show
no signs of menstruation.