MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
DARJEELING, THE 24TH MAY 1905.
RESOLUTION—No. 789T.—M.
READ—
The annual returns of the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for the year 1904.
Read also—
The annual returns of the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for the year 1903 and the
Resolution recorded by Government thereon.
The returns of the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for 1904 were received by
Government on the 6th May, or only five days after the due date.
2. The daily average population of the asylums in 1904 was higher than
in any year since 1891, while the admissions during the year and the number
under detention at its close were the highest on record. The total number of
lunatics in the asylums is less than 5 per cent. of the persons returned as of
unsound mind at the last Census, and there are often marked differences in the
number of admissions from adjoining districts. In 1904, for instance, 53
lunatics were sent to an asylum from Calcutta and 37 from the 24-Parganas,
but only two from Nadia and one from Jessore; 19 were sent from Dacca and
10 from Backergunge, but only two from Mymensingh and none at all from
Tippera. Such variations must, to some extent at least, be due to the
idiosyncracies of the officers having authority to order detention in an
asylum. The number of admissions fell suddenly about 1891, when it was
laid down that, apart from criminal lunatics, only those persons should be
confined in asylums who are regarded as dangerous or who are in such a
state of destitution that their admission is demanded by common humanity;
but during the last four years it has again risen steadily. This may be due
to the fact that the standing orders on the subject have in some districts been
overlooked, and attention will again be drawn to them.
3. The number of lunatics in asylums is affected not only by the number
of admissions but also by the time for which they are detained, and the
Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals expresses a doubt whether, in the case of
criminal lunatics, the orders of Government enjoining the release of harmless
lunatics convicted of trivial offences have been strictly observed. He has
already drawn the attention of Superintendents to this matter.
4. The mean death-rate was 92 per mille in 1904, against 100 in the
previous year. There are great differences in the figures for the different
institutions; and whereas in the Dacca and Berhampore Asylums the death-rate
was 67 per mille, at Dullunda it was no less than 128. In considering these
figures it must be remembered that the inmates of an asylum are comparable
with patients in a hospital rather than with prisoners in a jail. Most of them
suffer from some form or another of organic disease, such as tubercle or
dysentery; and their condition is often serious before they reach the asylum.
This was especially the case during the year under review at the Dullunda
Asylum, where no less than nine of the new admissions were found to be
suffering from phthisis. The death-rate of the asylums in England in 1903
was 104 per mille, or 12 more than the rate now reported for Bengal.
5. Some progress has been made during the year in the scheme for a
Central Aslyum for native lunatics, where they may be under the continuous
care of a highly-trained specialist. The Lieutenant-Governor's proposals for
a similar reform in the case of European lunatics are now before the Govern-
ment of India. The urgent necessity for this reform was pointed out in the