( 2 )
5. Admissions numbered 209 in 1903, 228 in 1904, and 195 in 1905, the
average being 211 against 179 in the previous three years. In 1903 and 1904
Dullunda (now closed) showed a large increase, chiefly in the number of
criminal lunatics. As it was in the centre of the metropolis and close to the
24-Parganas, it received annually large numbers of lunatics from these districts,
viz., 81 in 1903 and 90 in 1904. In 1905, however, the number as shown by
the Berhampore return fell to 84, and it remains to be seen what effect the
distance of Berhampore from Calcutta and the 24-Parganas has on the admis-
sions in future. The variations in each asylum are, as stated before, generally
difficult to explain. For instance at Patna, an exceptionally large number of
lunatics from the Saran district was noticed in 1904, which accession was
connected with the stress caused by the prevalence of plague in Bihar.
Whatever might have been the causes of excess in 1903 and 1904, there can be
no doubt that the falling off in 1905 was due to the transfer of the Maldah
district and those in the Rajshahai and Chittagong Divisions to the new
Province of East Bengal and Assam.
6. Re-admissions.—The total number of re-admissions was 35 in 1903, 31
in 1904, and 24 in 1905. Most of these cases were criminals; the majority of
them were returned to the asylums after trial. Of the 24 in 1905, 17 were
criminal and 7 non-criminal lunatics. Of the non-criminals, 3 were Euro-
pean paying patients at Bhawanipore and one was re-admitted after trial as a
non-criminal lunatic. In two other instances the lunatics were re-admitted after
long intervals, and in one case only in which the insanity had been caused by
ganja the patient had a relapse and was re-admitted after one month and six
days.
7. Discharges.—The total number discharged was 140 in 1903, 139 in
1904,and 139 in 1905. The percentage of recoveries on total strength was 12.15
in 1903, 10.79 in 1904, and 9.91 in 1905, which gives an average of 10.95
against 10.45 in the previous three years. This result may be contrasted
with that obtained in the English asylums in 1904, where it was 8.70. At
Bhawanipore there were 10 cured in 1903 and 4 in 1904, the decrease in the
latter year reducing the percentage from 25.51 to 10.25. At Patna several
harmless lunatics were made over to friends in 1905, for which reason the
number discharged was greater viz., 33 against 26 in 1904. The variations
elsewhere do not call for notice.
8. Accommodation—Was sufficient in 1905 in all the asylums, except at
Bhawanipore where, owing to a certain extent to quadrennial repairs, there was
some overcrowding in the male division in the latter part of the year. It
appears that there was more demand for room for pauper lunatics, who had to
be accommodated in the rooms allotted to third and second class patients.
To relieve this overcrowding, sanction of Government has been applied for
and accorded to the transfer of six lunatics from Bhawanipore to Berhampore,
where proper arrangements will be made for their accommodation and
comfort.
9. While the admissions for 1905 have decreased for the reasons already
explained, there can be no doubt that there has been an evident tendency to
increase of the asylum population during the past few years. The admissions
year by year show increases, while discharges remain more or less stationary.
It was suggested in the notes for 1903 that the increase of asylum population
was probably due to less unwillingness to bringing patients to asylums than in
former years.
These institutions are now better supervised, and looked upon quite
otherwise than in the past, and this confidence in them is sure to grow with the
additions and embellishments, etc., which will in future be the rule. It is found
that the number of pauper insane under detention in British asylums is increas-
ing at an alarming rate, the chief cause being a diminishing discharge rate.
The following remarks are reproduced from an English Medical Journal :—
" The individual who has to support adecrepit relative, senile and irritable, finds himself
hampered and worried, while private supervision is expensive, and makes exacting demands
on the members of his household : in these circumstances he calls to mind the asylum."
These remarks are also generally applicable to this country, and it is
desirable that the matter should receive the attention it deserves from those who
are concerned with the admission of lunatics to asylums, keeping in view the