RESOLUTION.
MEDICAL AND SANITATION.
Darjeeling, the 21st September 1887.
READ—
The Report on the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for the year 1886.
Read also—
The Report for the year 1885, and the Resolution recorded upon it.
Although the Report, which was due on the 1st May last, was not received
by Government till the 14th July, yet no explanation of the delay in its
submission has been furnished. The Lieutenant-Governor trusts that the
Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals will in future pay more attention to the
orders of Government regarding the punctual submission of reports.
2. The total number of persons who were in confinement in all the
asylums in Bengal, with the exception of the European Asylum at Bhowani-
pore, on the 1st January 1886 was 955, of whom 757 were males and 198
females. The numbers of admissions and re-admissions during the year were
200 and 18 respectively. Of all those under treatment, 87 persons were dis-
charged cured, 41 were transferred to the care of friends, 4 were discharged
and 85 died, leaving 956 persons in the asylums on the 31st December
1886. The daily average population was 963.9 against 939.62 in 1885. The
percentage of recoveries calculated on the daily average strength was 9.02
against 9.89 in the previous year.
3. The number of criminal lunatics in the asylums on the 1st January
1886 was 387, of whom 349 were males and 38 females. During the year there
were 81 new admissions and 12 re-admissions; 60 persons were discharged
or transferred, and 23 died, leaving 397 in the asylums at the close of
the year. This number is the highest on record within the past decade.
In 1876 the number was only 232, and there has been a steady increase
since that year, the number having increased by nearly 100 during the
last quin quinnial period from 1882 to 1886. In drawing attention to
the steady increase in the number of this class of lunatics, the Inspector-
General of Civil Hospitals observes that the figures are open to objection,
as they represent not altogether cases of genuine insanity, but possibly
cases in which insanity has been successfully pleaded in Court, and
cases of crime committed under mere intoxication. The Superintendent of the
Dullunda Asylum, referring to the increase in the number of criminal lunatics
in that institution, remarks that " the increase in the criminal population is due
to the necessity of retaining a prisoner in the institution after he has been
declared sane longer than a " non-criminal lunatic." Sir Steuart Bayley thinks
it possible that non-homicidal lunatics have in some cases been detained for longer
periods than was necessary. The statement of admissions and " crimes charged"
shows that out of the total number of 81 admissions, 25 were charged with
murder and attempts to commit murder, five with culpable homicide, four with
grievous hurt, two with hurt, one with attempt to commit suicide, 20 with theft,
one with receiving stolen property, three with trespass, one with mischief by fire,
one with exposure of child, two with house-breaking, one with criminal trespass,
one with lurking house trespass, five with house trespass, and one for each of
the following offences:—namely, forgery, hurt, vagrancy, highway robbery,
trespass, and assault, wrongful confinement, obstruction on railway, and expos-
ure of person. It is evident that many of these offences were comparatively
trivial, and if the lunatics were harmless, there was no necessity for sending
them to an asylum at all; in any case, if they are not dangerous, there
appears to be no reason for prolonged detention. During the year 17 per cent.
of the non-criminal population and 8 per cent. of the criminal class were
discharged from the Dullunda Asylum. From this the Superintendent con-
cludes that, while the non-criminals form, as it were, a floating population,
the criminals are gradually, but surely, filling the asylums. He suggests
the advisability of establishing a separate criminal asylum, as it is difficult to