(
4
)
The gross expenditure fell from Rs. 93,783 in 1881 to Rs. 81,633 in the
year under review. Of the decrease, which amounted to Rs. 12,150,
Rs. 2,084 occurred under ordinary, and Rs. 10,066 under extraordinary expen-
diture. The principal part of the reduction was under building charges, which
fell from Rs. 15,388 in 1881 to Rs. 5,565 in 1882. The total cost per patient
was Rs. 94 in 1882 against Rs. 107 in the previous year. The ordinary
charges per patient amounted to Rs. 87 against Rs. 88, and the net cost of each
person, after deducting receipts from paying patients and the net profits from
manufactures, was Rs. 82 against Rs. 96.
8. Under the head of establishment, the total expenditure amounted to
Rs. 39,702 against Rs. 41,725 in the previous year, the average cost per patient
being Rs. 45 against Rs. 47. In the Dullunda Asylum the charge for superin-
tendence fell from Rs. 33 to Rs. 26, the reduction being due to the arrangement
by which the charge of the asylum was transferred to the First Resident
Surgeon, General Hospital, from June 1882. Some reductions were also made
in the minor establishment, which were partly neutralized by the higher
salaries granted to the Deputy Superintendent and the Matron. The fluctua-
tions in the other asylums, which were comparatively small, were due
principally to alterations in the details of establishments.
9. The question of the cost of diet received considerable attention during
the year. The Government of India drew attention to the high cost of diet
in the Dullunda and Dacca Asylums as compared with the charges in the
neighbouring jails. On enquiry, however, it was ascertained that the excess
was more apparent than real. Several items, such as hospital expenses,
which were included in the figures of cost in the case of asylums, were shown
separately in the case of jails, while the nominal outlay in the latter institutions
was still further kept down by dint of supplying the prisoners with vegetables
from the jail gardens, and with other articles of food prepared by the inmates,
a resource that is only possible to a very limited extent in lunatic asylums.
Some minor economies have, however, been found possible, and the diet-scale
at Dacca has been revised and assimilated to that in force at Dullunda. The
cost per head of diet has been slightly reduced in these two asylums, as will
appear from the following table:—
Dullunda ... ... ...
Dacca
...
... ...
Patna
...
...
...
Cuttack
...
...
...
Berhampore
...
... ...
1881.
Rs.
41
37
23
18
28
A.
13
7
11
15
9
P.
5
8
0
10
10
1882.
Rs.
37
36
25
19
30
A.
12
0
4
12
15
P.
11
1
3
6
0
The conditions of a jail and a lunatic asylum are so different, that
a comparison between their diet-scales and cost is apt to be misleading. The
comparison should rather be with hospitals than with jails; but, as the Surgeon-
General points out, " it will not be very close with either, for sick men do not
labour, and lunatics are not criminals."
10. The charge for clothing was Rs. 2,467 against Rs. 2,664, but
Rs. 1,806 of the former sum represents the cost price of articles manufactured
in the asylums. The amount realized from paying patients fell from Rs. 1,977
in 1881 to Rs. 1,258 in the year under review. The fluctuation is small.
The amount expended on raw materials for manufacture was Rs. 27,038
against Rs. 24,317 in the previous year. Including book debits for work done
by other departments, and the value of stores in stock at the beginning of the
year, the total debit was Rs. 86,989. Manufactured goods to the value of
Rs. 11,257 were consumed in the asylums, a sum of Rs. 20,722 was paid into
the treasury, and the estimated value of the stores in stock when the year
closed was Rs. 61,404. The excess of credit over debit therefore amounted to
Rs. 5,913 against Rs. 6,947 in 1881. The Surgeon-General, however, points
out that articles consumed in the asylums are charged at cost price, profit being
allowed on outside sales only. Gross profits are therefore no measure of success.
11. The principal material improvements introduced during the year
consisted of the new hospital ward at Dullunda, which was opened in the course
of the year, the construction of a cooking stove, and the supply of filtered water
at Dacca, and the completion of the new filter at Berhampore. Filtration of
water also came to be practised at Patna during the year under review.