(
4
)
Statement II.
12. Shows admissions, discharges, etc., of criminal lunatics. Admissions
numbered 102 in 1906, 88 in 1907 and 81 in 1908,
an average of 90 against 127 in the previous
triennium. In 1906 Berhampore, including Cuttack, had an increase of 11 and
Patna 5. In 1907, for reasons already given, 15 fewer lunatics were admitted
at Berhampore, the number being 53 against 68 in 1906. In 1908 the number
was practically the same as in 1907, viz., 55. Admissions at Patna were 9 less
in 1908 for which the Superintendent cannot assign any reason. The total
number re-admitted was 21 in 1906, 8 in 1907 and 13 in 1908. There was
a decrease of 9 at Berhampore in 1907 which has already been explained.
The total number discharged was 87 in 1906, 66 in 1907 and 121 in 1908. In
the last named year 63 old chronic patients at Berhampore who were charged
with very trivial offences and were nominally retained in the criminal group,
were, under the orders of Government, transferred to the non-criminal list.
Eight more were also removed to this category after expiry of their sentence.
Under the rules regarding the disposal of recovered criminal lunatics 8 were
discharged in 1908. These rules issued so long ago as 1888 have been revised
and the revised rules are under the consideration of Government. In cases
where friends could be found, harmless insanes, whose crimes were of a trivial
nature, were made over to them with the sanction of Government. It is
generally found difficult to trace relatives of lunatics.
There were 36 deaths in 1906, 28 in 1907, and 20 in 1908, or a gradual
decrease, which is satisfactory. The daily average strength was 398.10, 403 72
and 388.44 respectively.
Statement III.
13. Gives religion, sex and residence of
lunatics. No remarks are called for.
Statement IV.
14. Shows the previous occupation of lunatics
before admission. In this respect also comment is
unnecessary.
Statement V.
15. Deals with the ages of lunatics. As usual the largest number of
lunatics admitted belonged to the age period of 20
to 40 years, viz., 76.30 per cent. in 1906, 68.88 in
1907, and 70.81 in 1908. After sixty years of age mental aberration was
noticed in an average of only 1.84 per cent. of admissions.
Statement VI.
16. Shows the types of insanity. This classification is beset with many
difficulties. In one and the same case different
forms of lunacy are observed and overlap, rendering
re-classification according to the progress of the case necessary. This was done
at Berhampore. Amongst the numbers admitted mania was the chief form of
lunacy accounting for the largest number of receptions, viz., 132 in 1906, 106
in 1907 and 97 in 1908, or 62.56, 54.08 and 52.43 per cent. respectively of
the total number admitted. This was also the experience in English Asylums,
where of the total admissions during the period 1902 to 1906, 39 4 per cent.
suffered from mania. Unlike melancholiacs or the demented in particular,
patients suffering from mania are more amenable to treatment than others, 69
having recovered their reason in 1906, 54 in 1907 and 44 in 1908. Melancholia
gave 39 admissions in 1906, 41 in 1907 and 53 in 1908, the number of recov-
eries being 13, 10, and 18 respectively. Of 22 lunatics who were admitted
for dementia in the triennial period under review, none recovered. General
paralysis, a rare type in India, gave only 2 cases, 1 in 1907, a European who
was deported to England under escort and 1 in 1908, a native, a criminal
lunatic admitted to the Patna Asylum. Under the head of delusional insanity
there were 11 admissions in 1906, 13 in 1907 and 5 in 1908, the number of
recoveries being 3, 3 and 1, respectively.
Statement VII.
17. Furnishes the alleged causes of insanity of lunatics. Antecedents
of the patients, if intelligently collected, have a
most important bearing on the onset of disease, and,
are most valuable to the Superintendents of Asylums in classifying and
treating the cases. The subject is, however, uninteresting to the collecting
and enquiring agency, viz , the police, and the result is that a variety of causes
are mentioned, often the lunatics' own statements and possibly sometimes the
outcome of the enquiring officer's conjecture make the subject more complex.
This difficulty in getting at the true cause of mental derangement of
patients is not confined to India. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere the
same difficulty is experienced. The medical history sheets accompanying the
lunatics in this Province in which antecedents are elicited have not always