LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
11
37. I append the information received from the Sanitary Commissioner,
Bengal, and Health Officer, Calcutta, concerning mortality in the several
towns in 1879 and 1880—
TABLE No. 13.
Statement of Deaths in 1879 and 1880.
NAME OF
LOCALITY.
Calcutta ... ...
Dacca
...
...
Patna
...
...
Cuttack ... ...
Berhampore ...
Population.
429,535
69,212
158,900
50,878
27,289
FEVERS.
1879.
4,796
462
2,261
295
357
1880.
3,797
740
1,972
251
333
BOWEL
COMPLAINTS.
1879.
1,516
214
1,176
238
25
1880.
1,267
223
807
205
50
CHOLERA.
1879.
1,186
118
652
48
28
1880.
805
15
59
34
19
TOTAL DEATHS
FROM ALL CAUSES.
1879.
13,044
1,551
5,932
1,025
424
1880.
11,681
1,641
4,399
1,135
426
RATIO PER 1,000
OF POPULATION.
1879.
30.3
22.4
37.33
20.14
15.53
1880.
27.15
23.7
27.68
22.3
15.61
38. In Calcutta there was less mortality from fever in 1880 than before.
Food was cheaper, and the cause of previous high death-rates from this cause
was thereby removed. No such cause had directly affected mortality in
jail or asylum, and no such effect therefore followed. From bowel complaints
and cholera the town suffered unusually little in 1880. In Dacca fevers
increased, bowel complaints were nearly stationary, and cholera was very
scarce. At Patna mortality was low in respect of all diseases. At Cuttack
there was some little increase of general mortality, but improvement under
all the specified disorders. At Berhampore there was no change that calls for
remark.
39. In my report on 1879 I offered some remarks on the deaths of a year
in an asylum as a measure of the sickness of that year, and showed that this
point is not established by the tabular statements, which do not represent
chronic and recurring illness, or the effect of imported disease, though they
may show the influence of season on chronic illness. The evidence of 1880
on this point will appear in the following paragraphs. Its importance is felt
when questions connected with changes of practice arise.
40. At the Presidency Asylum a change was made in the diet of the
people in 1880. It was shown in the report of the previous year that increase
of mortality in 1879 could not by any rational possibility be ascribed to diet.
Nevertheless, as high mortality continued in 1880, it was decided to revert to
the meat rations of the earlier years. It was not forgotten that these rations
had not before 1877 produced low death-rates, nor was it at all expected that
improvement would follow a return to them. The sole reason for the change
was a desire to place it out of the power of any one to contend, even irration-
ally, that diet in 1879 had been insufficient. In 1880 diet was extravagant
in this asylum. Meat was restored, and with other additions made the scale
higher than that of the healthy years. There was no effect on sickness.
New-comers who could use the diet and convalescents gained flesh rapidly, as
they had done before, but nothing further was effected.
41. At Patna no change of diet was made in 1880. The recorded
cost was much reduced by change in the method of account, and
in some degree by cheapness of provisions, but the scale was unaltered.
At Dacca, where deaths fell from 20 in 1879 to 10 in 1880, diet was reduced
in respect of animal food, one-third of which was replaced by vegetables. At
Berhampore and Cuttack no change was made. In the asylums of the North-
-estern Provinces meat is given only to sick people.
42. I proceed to consider the distribution of the most fatal diseases
in 1880.
From ague and its consequences 2 deaths were recorded in 1879,
both at Patna. Two deaths occurred at the Presidency in 1880—1 a new
admission, the other an old invalid. There were none in 1879. At Patna
there were 4 deaths in 1880. Two of these were recent admissions, 1 a
very old resident. Three of the 4 are noted as weak on admission. There
was no death from ague either at Dacca, Berhampore or Cuttack.