LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
9
17. Sickness.—The daily average sick rose in all the asylums, the largest
increase occurring in Dacca, or 6.21 higher than in 1885, save in Dullunda
which shows a fall of 2.93, the figures here being for 1885, 10.58 as against
7.65 for the year under report. The admissions into hospital in Dullunda,
Patna and Cuttack were 135, 94 and 28 in 1886, against 68, 86 and 17 in
1885, respectively, exhibiting an increased sick record, save in Dacca and
Berhampore, where the admissions fell from 127 and 53 in 1885 to 117 and 41
in 1886.
18. In Dullunda 135 patients were admitted into hospital against 68
in 1885. The principal cause of the increase of sickness was due to
ague 35 cases, a form of malarial fever scarcely recognized in former years,
when the asylum was pronounced inimical to miasmatic diseases generally,
the immunity being ascribed to the custom which obtained then, of obliging
the inmates to drink pure water and where save the graver forms of tropical
fevers, viz., the remittants, all else were classed as "ephemeral" and as a rule
treated on the out-patient list; a simplification of the nomenclature with
a vengeance. The more recent practice, however, in this asylum has been
to call diseases by their proper designations, and to admit those suffering
from ague, &c., into hospital when necessary, on the same principle which
g uides medical officers elsewhere in the selection of their patients for in-
door treatment. In addition to the above, 254 lunatics were treated as out-
patients against 400 in 1885. Thus, then it is apparent that, in this asylum
the increase of sickness was not so much the effects of season, as it was the
outcome of a more correct admission into hospital of the class of cases,
which hitherto, it had been the custom to retain as out patients, and whose
ailments in some instances had not been recorded at all. Following the prin-
ciple sketched out by me in paragraph 25, page 8 of my report for 1884, the
record of in and out-patients has been reduced to a just and equitable system,
and should any Superintendent of an asylum in the future, endeavour to keep
down his sick list by following the old Dullunda practice, it will not be
difficult to detect the tendency to show unproportionately favourable results.
19. The admissions into all the hospitals from all causes numbered 415
against 351 in 1885. The greatest increase occurred in Dullunda. There a rise
took place from 68 in 1885 to 135 in 1886, or a percentage to mean strength of
from 27.33 to 44.77. Cuttack comes next with a rise of 11 only in the total
admitted, or giving an increase from 28.47 to 51.14. Patna exhibits a slight
increase while Dacca and Berhampore shew a decrease where the rate per cent.
of total admissions to mean strength fell from 56.71 to 53.08 and 30.28 to 23.3
respectively.
20. The following is an abstract of out-door patients treated in all the
asylums during the year.
1
Dullunda ...
Dacca ...
Patna ...
Cuttack ...
Berhampore ...
Total
...
2
Remaining
from pre-
vious year.
Male.
10
4
5
9
...
28
Female.
...
...
1
3
...
4
Total
10
4
6
12
...
32
3
Admitted
during the year.
Male.
197
42
8
17
22
280
Female.
47
4
1
2
6
60
Total.
244
46
3
19
28
340
4
Total.
Male.
207
46
7
26
22
308
Female.
47
4
2
5
6
64
Total.
254
50
9
31
88
378
6
6
7
8
9
RESULTS.
Discharged
cured.
Male.
186
48
1
14
19
263
Female.
40
4
1
3
4
52
Total.
226
47
2
17
23
315
Transferred
to in-door
hospital.
Male.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Female.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Total.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Discharged
otherwise.
Male.
14
...
4
1
...
19
Female.
6
...
1
...
...
7
Total.
20
...
5
1
...
26
Died.
Male.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Female.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Total.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Remaining.
Male.
7
3
2
11
3
26
Female.
1
...
...
2
2
5
Total.
8
3
2
13
5
31