Preceeding of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, in the Home (Medical and Sanitary)
Department, No. 490, dated 23rd May 1906.
READ—
Letter No. 2399 dated 17th April 1906, from the Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals;
Punjab, submitting the Report of the Punjab Lunatic Asylum for the year 1905.
REMARKS.—The present report covers the triennial period 1903-05, and
forms a record of the steady growth of the institution since 1902. In spite of
the provision of a separate asylum for female lunatics in October 1903 and
the greatly increased accommodation afforded thereby, less than two years have
sufficed to fill and even overcrowd the main asylum. During 1905 the daily
average number of patients was 477—rising to over 480 in two months of the
year—while the accommodation ordinarily available is for 458 only. The result
was that tents had to be employed to shelter the surplus population. Proposals
for increasing the accommodation have recently been approved by Government
and are now being worked out in detail.
2. The main features of interest in the report are the variations in
insanity between males and females, the general absence of suicidal tendencies
among the patients, and, considering the liberty enjoyed, the comparatively
few attempts made at escape. Thus the Superintendent holds that insanity is
much less common among women in India than among men, and that this
comparative immunity is partly due to the fact that they are much less addicted
to charas smoking and bhang drinking than the latter. Recovery from mania
induced by drugs is, however, more frequent than in the case of other types of
insanity, and this explains to a certain extent the lower percentage of recovery
among the women compared with the men.
3. The Lieutenant-Governor agrees with the Inspector-General of Civil
Hospitals that it is most desirable to confine criminal lunatics in a separate
asylum, and, unless it is possible to establish a central asylum for this purpose
on a large scale, which would meet the requirements of all India, the question
of a separate establishment of this nature in the Punjab will be considered as
soon as effect has been given to the extensions recently proposed to the
existing asylum.
4. The record of mortality in the asylum rose to some extent in 1905
owing to the admission of several patients in a moribund condition and the
trying climatic conditions of certain portions of the year. On the whole,
however, the management of the asylum has in spite of the difficulties experienced
in obtaining an efficient subordinate staff been conducted with marked success,
and the substantial rise in the income derived from paying patients is a satis.
factory indication that the institution is well regarded by the public.
5. The Lieutenant-Governor has much pleasure in expressing his appre-
ciation of the good work performed by Major Ewens and Captain Robertson-
Milne, who have been ably supported by Military Assistant Surgeon Fleming.
His Honour desires that the thanks of Government may also be conveyed to
the Sisters of the Order of Franciscans, whose unselfish work and devotion to
the patients in the Female Asylum have been specially brought to notice in
paragraph 5 of the report.
ORDER—Ordered that a copy of the report and of the foregoing
remarks be forwarded to the Government of India, Home Department, for
information ; also that the review be published in the Punjab Gazette.
Ordered, also, that a copy of the foregoing remarks be forwarded to the
Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, Punjab, for information.
By order of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor,
A. B. KETTLEWELL,
Secretary to Government, Punjab.
Punjab Government Press, Lahore —29-5-06-2256 -210-K. C. M.