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TRIENNIAL REPORT
ON THE
LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL
For the years 1906, 1907 and 1908.
IN order to make this report complete in itself it is necessary to recapitu-
late some of the events in connection with Lunatic Asylums which have
already been reported in the annual brief notes of the years 1906 and 1907
as they comprise some of the principal events of the triennium under review.
One of these is the closure in 1906 of the Cuttack Asylum and the transfer of its
inmates, numbering 36 males and 1 female, to the Berhampore Asylum. This
was carried out without mishap. There has thus, since 1906, been only three
Lunatic Asylums in this Province, viz., two for natives, one at Berhampore and
the other at Patna, and one for Europeans in Bhowanipur (Calcutta) instead
of four, the number treated of in the last triennial report.
2. Formerly the Civil Surgeon of the district in which an Asylum was
situated was Superintendent of that institution in addition to his other work.
His multifarious duties at the station, which had first to be attended to, and
his want of special knowledge of lunacy rendered this an unsatisfactory
arrangement. This anomaly was to a great extent removed in 1906 by the
appointment to the Berhampore Combined Asylum of a separate expert medical
officer, Major C.J. Robertson-Milne, I.M.S., who had considerable experience of
Asylum management elsewhere. He took charge of the Asylum at Berham-
pore on the 29th October 1906.
The appointment of a whole-time officer skilled in Asylum management,
and who is most patient and sympathetic in his dealings with the insane
patients, has resulted in great advantage to themselves and in the more efficient
administration of the Asylum generally.
3. Statistics of the triennium under report in connection with admissions
to the Lunatic Asylums, discharges, religion, sex, age, previous occupation,
types of insanity, alleged causes, establishment and receipts and expenditure
are all embodied in the appendices to this report.
Statement I.
4. Deals with admissions and discharges. The total Asylum population
showed a slight reduction in 1906, viz., 7, an
addition of 16 in 1907, and of 13 in 1908, the
total number of lunatics on the 31st December 1905 having been 843, 836 in
1906, 852 in 1907 and 865 in 1908, or an average of 851 against 822 in the
previous three years. The daily average number resident was 827 08 in 1906,
849.29 in 1907 and 851.33 in 1908. There has thus been a tendency towards
increase in the number under confinement. In a subsequent paragraph under
the head " Discharges" attention has been drawn to the accumulation of
chronic cases under confinement at Berhampore. The proportion of criminal
lunatics to the total population on the 31st December of each year under
report was 47.96, 47.30 and 41.15 per cent., the average being 45.47, against
48.52 in the previous triennium.
5. Admissions.—The total number of receptions, excluding the
number re-admitted, was 188 in 1906, 181 in 1907 and 168 in 1908,
constituting 17.83, 17.54 and 16.20 per cent., of the total treated in each of
these years, respectively. The average number admitted was 178 against
211 in the previous three years. It was observed in the last triennial
report and in my notes for last year that as long as the Dullanda Asylum
was situated at the metropolis, it received large numbers of lunatics from
Calcutta and the 24-Parganas, but since its closure these districts sent fewer