MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
DARJEELING, THE 16TH APRIL 1883.
RESOLUTION.
READ—
The Report on the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for 1882.
Read again—
The Report for 1881, and the Resolution recorded upon it.
The administration of the lunatic asylums in Bengal during 1882 was
marked by no features of exceptional interest or importance. The Report is
a record of normal conditions and the performance of routine duties. Such
fluctuations as are chronicled in the returns are nothing more than must be
expected from year to year; they indicate no special causes, and call for no
special remark. The number of admissions into the asylums during the
year, which had shown a small rise in 1880 and again in 1881, has fallen to
165, which is the smallest number on record, and is less by 23 than that of
the previous year. The decrease was most marked in the case of women,
of whom only 21 were admitted in 1882 against 38 in the previous year. The
number of re-admissions was 23 against 25 in 1881, and the daily average
population of the asylums was 867.12 against 870.24. The decrease seems
to show that, contrary to expectation, the effect of the orders of Government
restricting the admission of non-criminal and harmless patients is not yet
entirely exhausted.
2. The number of lunatics discharged cured was 83 against 93 in 1881.
The Surgeon-General points out that in the Dullunda Asylum 6 persons, who
were fit for discharge, suffered undue detention, and remained in custody at
the close of the year. This matter was separately reported to Government by
the Surgeon-General, who explained that the cause of detention was that on
several consecutive occasions a sufficient number of visitors had not attended
to form a quorum for the discharge of recovered lunatics. Orders were
promptly issued by Government for the discharge of the 6 persons referred
to, who were set at large shortly after the close of the year, and measures
were taken to prevent the recurrence of so grave an irregularity. The
number of official visitors is sufficiently large to secure the regular attendance
of a quorum at each monthly inspection, and gentlemen who have accepted the
position should not lightly ignore its responsibilities. During the year,
34 lunatics were transferred to the care of friends, 87 died, and 2
escaped. The number remaining in the asylums at the close of the year
was 849, viz. 663 males and 186 females, against 868 remaining at the
close of 1881. The proportion of recoveries calculated upon average strength
was 9.57 against 10.6 in the previous year, and 8.27 in 1880. The decrease
in the percentage of recoveries in the year under review was due to the
converse of the cause which led to the increase in 1881, viz. the falling off
in the number of admissions for acute mania. These fell from 99 to 69, or by
nearly 50 per cent. The percentage of recoveries on total cases treated was,
in the case of acute mania 17.5, chronic mania 4.08, melancholia 5.06, acute
dementia 8.33, and chronic dementia 5.35. These percentages are higher in
every case than the corresponding proportions in 1881, except in the case of
chronic mania. The Surgeon-General, however, does not think that complete
uniformity exists in the various asylums in the diagnosis of different forms of
mental disease, and the returns can only be regarded as approximately
accurate. Changes of policy in nomenclature seem to have occurred during
the last two years at Patna and Berhampore. The number of deaths from
the two forms of mania in the former asylum was 13 out of 155 cases treated,
and in the latter, 10 out of 149. The percentages in these asylums were there-
fore 8.38 and 6.71 respectively, against a general percentage of 7.93 in the
year under report, and of 7.13 in the year previous. These figures tend to
show, pro tanto, that the number of cases assigned to mania, whether acute or