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117. Evidence of Hospital Assistant D. RAJENDRUM, Calicut.
Oral evidence.
1. I am Hospital Assistant of the first class
with twenty-five years' service. I have been four
years Resident Hospital Assistant in the Calicut
Asylum and gave over charge on the 19th December
1893.
45. When a patient is received into the asylum,
my procedure has been first to look into the
warrant and. papers with him and. make entries in
the General Register. If I find any omission in
the certificate I write to the Magistrate who sent
the man or to the Civil Surgeon (as the case may
be) bringing it to his notice and asking him to
furnish the required information. I mean such
omissions as the "cause of insanity" or any other
particular in Form C. This is in accordance with
the Madras Surgeon General's Circular No. 12,
dated. 28th September 1891, which emphasises
" the extreme importance of making every endea-
vour to obtain a full and correct history of each
case with special reference to cause and previous
occupation." In illustration of this, I put in the
papers in the case of Neerati Moosan, in whose case
the "cause" was not shown. I therefore wrote to
the Civil Surgeon of Tedcherry. He wrote to the
Joint Magistrate requesting him "to ask the
police to furnish information as to cause of insanity
at an early date."The Joint Magistrate sent the
papers to the Acting Inspector of Police. He
reported. "Sir, I humbly beg to state that Neerati
Mayan, the uncle of the lunatic, and others state
that religious study brought about the disorderly
state of mind of the lunatic. I too find on inquiry
the same to be correct." This was sent on to the
Asylum Superintendent in original ; and 1 duly
entered "Religion" as the "cause."
I only apply in this way to the Civil Surgeon
in reference to "cause." In all other matters I
apply direct to the Magistrate who sent the lunatic.
When a lunatic is received, I immediately fill
in all the entries in the "General Register" from
the papers in my own hand. Column 10, which
shows "cause," is at once filled up if there is any
entry as regards cause in the papers. If the
cause is shown as "unknown" in the papers,
I enter the word "unknown" and make inquiry
from the Civil Surgeon. But I would not do
this if there were friends with the patient who
could tell me the cause. If there are friends, I
ask them what was the cause. If they give me
a reasonably satisfactory cause, I enter it at once.
I put them leading questions,— e.g. Has he suf-
fered. from disease? Does he smoke ganja? or
take liquor? Has he suffered from grief ?—-
and such questions. If ganja smoking were men-
tioned, I would inquire as to the extent and dura
-tion of the habit; but if no other cause were shown,
I should enter ganja smoking without regard to
the question of moderate or excessive use. After
such an inquiry as I have indicated I make the
entry myself without waiting for sanction;
but I show it to the Superintendent for his
approval,
He comes as often as is necessary,
generally twice a week. I do not keep the friends
for him to see; but I merely tell him what
have done. In such cases I do not write to the
certifying Civil Surgeon about "cause." It is
enough that I have got it from the friends.
I would similarly take the statement of the police
escorting the man as to any fact ascertained by
them from the man's friends when they took
charge of the man.
I have been specially careful in thus inquiring
into "cause," since the remark in paragraph 5 of
the Government Resolution on the Lunatic Asylum
Report for 1890 stigmatising this asylum as "the
worst" in respect to the average of unknown
causes. That resolution was issued in July 1891.
There is only one case shown in the register for
1892 as due to hemp drugs. That has been
specially treated by the Indian Hemp Drugs Com
- m i s s i o n . T h e r e a r e s i x c a s e s s h o w n i n t h e r e g i s t e r
for 1893 as due to hemp drugs.
In one of these (Bala Desa Singh, admitted 16th
September 1893), the Magistrate's Form C has the
entry for "cause " blank; but I entered "ganja
smoking," because that is mentioned in the entry
regarding "habits or disposition." It was solely
on this. He had no friends. He is a wanderer.
In the case of Ram Dass (admitted 24th October
1893) the entry in Form C is "probably from
smoking ganja." I entered "ganja smoking"
accordingly, because it was the only cause assigned.
The Case Book has this entry on November 17th:
"Asked for ganja. When a cigar was given he
was satisfied." There were no friends with this
man,
In the case of Narayan Nair (admitted 14th
December 1893) the entry in Form C is "wander
-ing life and use of ganja." I only entered "ganja
smoking," because I do not think a wandering life
would make a man insane.
These three cases were from other districts, the
other three of the six 1893 cases were local Calicut
cases.
In the case of Ukappan alias Kristian
(admitted 29th May), Dr. Carruthers shows the
cause in Form C as "abuse of drugs probably."
I entered "ganja" after inquiry from his wife
who came to visit him.
In the case of M. Andikuti (admitted 5th July
1893), Dr. Carruthers shows the case in Form C as
"physical, probably induced by abuse of alcohol and
drugs." I cannot remember why I entered.
"ganja." My first entry was "use of intox
i-cants." Below that I later on wrote "ganja."
I think I must have heard that the man was more
addicted to ganja than alcohol; but I do not
remember.
In the only remaining case, Assistant Surgeon
J. J. S. Pillay entered "ganja smoking" as the
cause in Form C. He has left the district.