( 2 )
6. Sickness and mortality.—Taken collectively the health statistics of the
asylums show a marked decrease in sickness, the total admissions to hospitals
being 655 against 746 in 1908. The slight increase in daily average sick, 115.72
against 101.31 in the previous year was mainly due to the treatment of some
chronic cases and to the placing on the sick list of lunatics with slight tempera-
ture to prevent further development during the severe monsoon. The latter
circumstance chiefly accounts for the increase in fever cases which numbered 248
against 149 in 1908. There were two cases of kala-azar, one ending fatally.
Bowel complaints (dysentery and diarrhœa) were fewer, viz., 43 against 48 in
the previous year. Thirty patients were admitted for tubercular phthisis
against 33 in 1908. The number of deaths from this cause was also fewer, 13
against 17 in 1908. The total mortality was 47 against 65 in 1908 and the
death-rate was strikingly low, it having been 5.30 per cent. against 7.63 in
1908. This is, indeed, very satisfactory.
The rate of mortality in Bengal for 1909 was much less than what obtained
in that year in the United Provinces (9.41), Madras (7.09), Punjab (13.43) and
Bombay (13.1) and Eastern Bengal and Assam (13.51).
Statement II.
7. Criminal lunatics.—The number on the books on 1st January 1909
was 356; 75 were admitted against 81 in 1908, and
13 were readmitted, the same number as in the
previous year. The number discharged fell from 121 in 1908 to 64 in 1909,
the decrease being chiefly due to the fact that whereas in 1908, 63 old chronic
patients charged with trivial offences were transferred to the non-criminal list
under the special sanction of Government, the number so transferred in 1909
was 8 only. Efforts were continued during the year under review to find out
the relatives of harmless insanes whose crimes were not serious in order that
they might be induced to take charge of them, and the results were successful
in some cases. There were 18 deaths against 20 in 1908.
Statements III, IV and V.
8. I have no special remarks to make on the
statistical information furnished in these statements,
Statement VI.
9. Most of the admissions, viz., 118 or 60.20 per cent., were cases of
mania. As such cases are more amenable to treat-
ment, recoveries amongst them are generally
largest, as was the case in the year under review, viz., 45. Melancholia furnish-
ed 46 cases or 23.47 per cent., with 19 recoveries. There were 8 admissions
in 1909 from delusional insanity, 4 Europeans and Eurasians and 4 Indians.
There was one case of general paralysis of the insane, a rare type in this
country. The patient, a native of Sambalpur, was a criminal lunatic, a
Hindu (Sahara) who was received into the Berhampore Asylum. The Super-
intendent reports that the case was of the convulsive type of general paralysis.
The lunatic died. Dementia accounted for 7 admissions in 1909. It is
remarkable that under its epileptic form there was one recovery. The patient
was under treatment at Bhawanipur.
Statement VII.
10. Ninety-nine, or 50.51 per cent. of the number admitted, owe their
mental breakdown to physical, and 13 or 6.63 per
cent. to moral causes, while in 42.86 per cent. of
the cases the cause of insanity was unknown. In eight cases the mental
aberration was attributed to hereditary influences, in 42 to abuse of ganja,
in 11 to intemperance in drink and in 3 to other intoxicants, viz., toddy,
There was a distinct increase, viz., 11 in the number of ganja cases at
Berhampore during the year under review. The Superintendent states that
the antecedents of these cases, where the medical history sheets were
defective, were verified by communications with the relatives of the patients
and the police. It is reported that the medical history sheets of the lunatics
who were sent to asylums were prepared with greater care during the year
under review, but that there is yet much room for improvement in this respect.
In the revised rules for the management of lunatic asylums, which are about
to be adopted, this form and its heading have been altered, so that there may
be no misapprehension or mistake on the part of those concerned as to who are
responsible for filling it in and for their correctness and completeness which
are matters of much importance.
11. Injuries and accidents.—The catalogue of these was large at Berham-
pore, but almost all were of a trivial nature and need not therefore be detailed.
There was two cases of snake-bites, which were treated with antivenine.
The patients recovered. There was, however, no record of the kind of snake
inflicting the wounds. Every effort was made to rid the asylum of these