RESOLUTION.
MEDICAL.
Dated Darjeeling, the 5th July 1888.
READ—
The Report on the Lunatio Asylums in Bengal for the year 1887.
Read also—
The Report for the year 1886, and the Resolution recorded on it.
The report, which is due on the 1st May, was not submitted till the 21st.
This is an improvement on last year's, which was not received till the 1st July;
but there does not seem to be any reason why it should not be submitted on or
before the date on which it is due.
2. The number of admissions into the asylums fell from 200 in 1886
to 168. Of these, 144 were males and 24 females. The number of re-admis-
sions was 13 against 18 in the previous year. The total number of persons
treated for insanity was 1,137 as compared with 1,173 in the previous year,
and the daily average population of the asylums was 943.11 against 963.9 in
1886. Of those under treatment, 88 were discharged cured, 39 were trans-
ferred to the care of friends, 86 died, and 2 were otherwise disposed of. The
percentage of recoveries on the average strength was 9.33 against 9.02 in the
previous year. 922 lunatics remained in the asylum at the close of the year,
of whom 729 were males and 193 females.
3. The number of criminal lunatics, which had risen considerably in 1886,
has fallen off slightly, the figures being 384 on the 31st December 1887
against 397 on the same date of the preceding year. There were 80 new
admissions during the year against 81 in 1886, of whom 73 were males and 7
females. The daily average strength was 390.88 ; 75 persons were discharged
or transferred, and 28 died.
For the last few years the number of criminal lunatics has increased in
all the asylums in Bengal. The question also of the conditions under which it
becomes safe to release a criminal lunatic appeared to the Lieutenant-Governor
to be in a very unsatisfactory state, detention in many cases continuing longer
than seems necessary for the public safety, and much difference of opinion, with
consequent friction, being brought to the notice of Government. With a view
to remedy these evils, a Committee was appointed to consider and submit definite
proposals as to how such cases were to be dealt with in future. Special reference
was made to the system of appointing recovered lunatics to the posts of paid
warders in jails. The report of the Committee has been received, and is now
under the consideration of Government.
4. The nomenclature of diseases, which has recently been published by the
Royal College of Physicians, will have the effect of removing to some extent
the difficulty hitherto experienced in classification. During the year 116 persons
have been shown as suffering under the head of mania, 32 under melancholia,
16 under dementia, 3 under epileptic insanity, and 5 under toxic insanity.
In 439 cases the disease is attributed to physical causes, and in 132 to
moral causes. Of the former, 247 cases are said to be due to ganja, 4 to
bhang: and charas, 54 to spirit, 7 to opium, 25 to fever, 41 to heredity, 27 to
epilepsy and 34 to other causes. Of the 132 cases attributed to moral causes,
89 were due to grief, 9 to fear, 13 to jealousy and 21 to other causes.
The above figures point to the conclusion that indulgence in ganja
is the most potent factor in the production of insanity in these Provinces.
The Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, however, remarks that in this
country causes of insanity are involved in much obscurity, and are often
unascertainable.
5. The health of the lunatics has been fairly good except in the Dullunda
and Berhampore Asylums. At Dullunda the daily average number of sick
was 12.89 against 7.65 in the previous year, while in Berhampore the average
was 7.33 against 3.09. The sick list of the Dullunda Asylum is said to have
swollen by an epidemic of chicken-pox and by the prevalence of fever. At