34
LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
Establishment.
25. Mr. Birch speaks in the highest terms of Mr. Maunder, who gives
the whole of his time to his duties. " He is active, zealous, industrious, strictly
temperate, thoroughly trustworthy, and pains-taking to a degree. He has now
sufficiently mastered Hindustani to be able to communicate freely with his
subordinates and the patients. Certainly he has done his best in every way
to work well and efficiently, and the only point on which he is still deficient
is the ability to keep accurately the petty accounts of issue and expenditure of
raw materials.
" Mrs. Maunder, the Matron, is gentle, kind, efficient, and intelligent in the
management of her department.
" The Native Doctor is a respectable young man of superior qualifications
and considerable intelligence, who has worked well and efficiently. The clerk
is efficient and pains-taking in his department, and his conduct has been satis-
factory ; but he suffers from an akward propensity to indispositions, which he
deems a sufficient excuse for absence from duty. The keepers and other subor-
dinates, on the whole, worked well. Sleeping while on watch at night is
their chief offence."
Paralysis of the
insane.
26. Mr. Birch alludes to the remarkable fact of there being no cases of
the general paralysis of the insane in this or in other asylums in India.
Conclusion.
27. Attention is requested to the concluding paragraph of Mr. Birch's
report, which is in these words : " That part of the work which is to connect
the present cook-house shed with the dining-hall has not yet been commenced.
It occurs to me, should it be contemplated to erect a pucka cook-house, as
suggested by the Deputy Surgeon-General, the connecting work now sanctioned
might judiciously be stopped, for the expense thereby saved would go far
towards meeting that of the proposed erection; but it would be necessary to
issue early orders."
Inspection.
Dr. Irving, Deputy Surgeon-General of the Dinapore circle, visited the
asylum on the 22nd January 1878. He was unable to leave home on account
of sickness in December, and was permitted to make his annual inspection
for 1877 at the beginning of the present year. He reports that he found the
place greatly improved since his last visit on the 20th November 1876, and
adds that he found almost every inmate employed in some sort of work—a very
different state of matters compared with what he found at his previous inspection.
He further says: " The only improvements (or alterations rather) that I have to
suggest are, first, the raising of the walls of the barracks a couple of feet when
they require re-roofing, and secondly a cook-room adjoining the dining-shed.
Cooking in the asylum ought to be done by means of a ship's galley or a
large American cooking-stove, as being more economical and in every way
preferable at a station where coal is to be had for the carting or little
more."
N.B.—The following is the form for taking cases alluded to by Mr. Birch :—
Name,
Mental.
Bodily.
Exaltation
Depression
Excitement
Enfeeblement
Memory
Coherence
Delusions
Other abnormalities
Appearance
Skin
Eyes
Muscularity
Nervous system—Motor
STATE ON ADMISSION.
Can answer questions ?
Hair
Pupils
Fatness
Sensory.
Reflex action
Retina
Lungs
Heart
Tongue
Other organs, abnormalities, bruises, &c.
Appetite
Urine
Menstruation
Pulse
Disease
General bodily health and condition.
Special senses
Bowels
Temp
Weight
Skae's classification