LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
7
which should have been distributed over several years. It is easy to see how
this must vitiate a reckoning on total numbers; but it is impossible to lay
down a practice which would not lead to errors of some kind.
17. Causes of insanity.—The assigned causes of insanity are set forth in
the appendix separately for each asylum. The information is, for reasons
previously stated, so unsatisfactory under most of the headings, that I think it
unprofitable to summarise it in a separate statement here. The prominent
part which ganja-smoking plays in peopling Bengal asylums needs no more
than mention ; but with reference to my remarks on criminal lunacy, I would
invite attention to the record of admissions (statement 7) of criminal lunatics.
Of these 11 were received into the Presidency Asylum as ganja-smokers in 1880,
and 3 only in 1879. The total admissions of this class rose from 58 in
1879 to 65 in 1880. The Presidency and Patna Asylums record considerable
increase. Dacca is stationary, and the others show decrease. The recoveries
among ganja-smokers have been 61, with 89 admissions in 1878; 41, with 58
admissions in 1879; and 31, with 65 admissions in 1880, pointing to the con-
clusion suggested in paragraph 15, that among the ganja-smokers admitted
there have been in 1880 fewer cases of passing intoxication than before.
18. Sickness.—The table in the appendix shows the quantity of sickness
treated inside the several hospitals of asylums. In the Government resolution
on the report for 1879, it was ordered that information should also be given of the
numbers of persons disabled for work by any kind of sickness or infirmity, and
accordingly returns have been received in my office of all persons regarded
as out-patients of the hospitals. The cases composing the out-patient lists
among lunatics are so various, and some of them so different from illness, that
to include them in the sick lists would not only forbid comparison of those
lists one with another, but would render them useless for their own purposes.
I have therefore included in the following table of actual sickness only the cases
of in-patients, and annexed a record of the number of persons daily treated as
out-patients. Among these are persons who, though in good bodily condition,
have to be forcibly fed, persons under observation, chronic invalids, convales-
cents from the true sick lists, even habitual idlers with no physical disabil-
ities, and persons with trivial bruises or abrasions, concerning whom, I believe,
all the information that the Government desires to receive will be afforded by
a statement of daily numbers; though, from the date of the order, it follows that
the figures relate to only a portion of the year.
19. The following table exhibits the admissions into hospital, the daily
average number of sick in hospital, and the ratio per cent. on mean popula-
tion :—
TABLE NO. 9.
Admissions into hospital
...
...
...
...
...
Ditto per cent. of mean strength
...
...
...
Daily average sick
...
...
...
...
...
...
Ditto
in 1879
...
...
...
...
...
Ditto
per cent. of mean strength ... ...
Ditto
ditto
in 1879...
Daily average number out-patients
...
...
...
...
Dullunda.
70
32.48
8.48
6.63
3.93
3.05
23.1
Dacca.
91
45.86
8.94
8.70
4.5
4.43
7.85
Patna.
183
79.55
15.92
14.75
6.92
6.46
10.82
Cuttack.
20
38.98
l.88
1.2
3.66
2.33
10.25
Berhampore.
121
64.88
5.38
7.38
2.88
3.74
27.0
TOTAL.
485
55
40.6
38.66
4.6
4.34
79.02
There were treated 516 cases in 1880, against 543 and 784 in the two
preceding years. The daily average was 40 6, against 38.6 and 60.0 in 1879
and 1878 respectively. The daily average number of out-patients was 79 in
the aggregate.
TABLE No. 10.
Showing the prevalence of principal diseases in 1879 and 1880.
Anæmia and debility
...
...
Cholera
...
...
...
...
Diarrhœa
...
...
...
...
Dropsy ... ... ... ...
Dysentery
...
...
...
...
Fevers
...
...
...
...
Pneumonia
...
...
...
...
Phthisis
...
...
...
...
Dullunda.
1879.
8
......
5
......
10
2
8
16
1880.
11
......
1
13
14
2
14
Dacca.
1879.
9
18
2
10
32
3
5
1880.
7
......
11
3
11
30
......
6
Patna.
1879.
40
7
24
4
36
42
......
3
1880.
24
3
36
......
49
37
......
12
Cuttack.
1879.
2
2
3
......
3
23
......
......
1880.
2
......
3
......
1
11
......
2
Berhampore.
1879.
1
2
8
3
32
70
1
1880.
3
9
20
2
33
31
3
TOTAL.
1879.
60
11
58
9
91
169
7
24
1880.
47
12
71
5
107
123
5
34