( 2 )
cent. of the number of admissions, but this does not mean of course that 41.26
per cent. of the new admissions were cured.
In considering the number of patients reported to have been cured it is
necessary to note the number re-admitted during the year; 41 lunatics were
re-admitted and of these 13 were criminals re-admitted immediately after trial,
whilst eight others were re-admitted within two months of their discharge.
Three lunatics were re-admitted within 15 days of their discharge in the
Bhowanipur Asylum.
Sickness and mortality.—Of the 1,348 lunatics treated during the year 106
or 7.8 per cent. died, whilst 613 were admitted to hospital during the same
period; the daily average number sick being 62.17. It may be interesting to
compare these figures with those for some former years in which the mortality
was above the average as under:—
1887 ... ...
1893 ... ...
1896 ... ...
1900 ... ...
1902
...
...
1903 ... ...
Total
population.
1,190
1,220
1,153
1,176
1,287
1,348
Total
number of
deaths.
90
81
95
100
96
106
Percentage of
deaths to total
treated.
7.5
6.6
8.2
8.5
7.4
7.8
Compared with the returns from the asylums in some other provinces
the death-rate was higher in the Bengal Institutions than in those of Bombay,
Burmah, and the Punjab. The figures are as follows:—
Death-rate per cent. of daily
average number.
Bengal.
10.05
Bombay.
8.3
Burmah.
8.67
Punjab.
7.64
The deaths are distributed as follows:—
Total number of deaths ...
Percentage of total treated ...
Bhowani-
pur.
4
6.6
Dullunda.
38
10.2
Dacca.
15
4.5
Patna.
23
8.8
Cuttack.
1
2
Berham-
pore.
25
9
The principal causes of mortality were tuberculosis (28 deaths) dysen-
tery and diarrhœa (19 deaths), cholera (10 deaths) pneumonia (6 deaths)
cerebral causes (5 deaths). Tuberculosis is most frequent in the Dullunda and
Dacca Asylums—a circumstance which is most probably the result of a combina-
tion of causes, such as extensive prevalence of the disease amongst the
surrounding population, climatic conditions, the unhealthy sites on which these
asylums are built, and defects in the accommodation. At Dacca there was slight
overcrowding throughout the year, and here the deaths from tuberculosis were
most numerous.
Dysentery is not common as an indigenous affection in the asylums
and there is no special form of the disease prevalent amongst the lunatics
corresponding to the asylum dysentery so commonly met with in European
Institutions. Cholera appeared in the Berhampore and Patna Asylums but the
outbreaks were very limited, causing ten deaths only. The Superintendent of
the Patna Asylum attributes the infection to flies, the buildings being in close
proximity to the native town where cholera was prevalent at the time. On the
whole the year under review was not an unhealthy one, in so far as the
asylums were concerned, and malarial fevers were much less common
amongst the inmates. It is satisfactory to note that the precautions taken
against plague were successful and that no case of the disease occurred amongst
the lunatics.
Statement II.
Furnishes details regarding criminal lunatics who numbered 706 as
compared with 673 in the preceding year, and 624
in 1901. At the commencement of the year 542
criminal lunatics were under confinement, 164 were admitted (including 26
re-admissions), 108 were discharged and 60 died, the number remaining at the
close of the year being 538 or 51.4 per cent. of the total population. Admis-
sions were most numerous in the Dullunda and Dacca Asylums.
The statistics furnished in Statements III, IV and V do not differ
materially from those for former years and do not call for special remarks. Of
the 71 admissions to the Dacca Asylum which took place during the year, 31