No. 4640.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces, in
the General Department,—dated Pachmarhi, the 22nd May 1897.
READ—
The Annual Report and Statements of the Lunatic Asylums in the Central Provinces
for the year 1896.
RESOLUTION.
The total population of the two Asylums in the year 1896 was 382, or
1 in excess of the previous year: 205 belonged to Nagpur and 177 to Jub-
bulpore. In the former Asylum the population decreased by 2 in comparison
with 1895 and in the latter it increased by 3. The daily average strength,
however, showed an increase of 14, almost equally divided between the two
Asylums.
2. The percentage of cured to the total population was 6.54 as compared
with 630 in the previous year. The Administrative Medical Officer suggests
that the lowness of the proportion in comparison with those of Asylums in other
parts of India may be due to some extent to variations in the prevailing types
of insanity. This may possibly be the case, but there may also, as suggested last
year, be a difference of practice in regard to the treatment of recovered lunatics.
It is only when discharged that a case is shown in the returns as cured. In para-
graph 4 of last year's Resolution attention was drawn to the Bengal Rules, which
were ordered to be followed in these Provinces in 1888, a prominent feature in
which is the transfer of apparently recovered lunatics to Central Jails for a period of
probation. This action was adopted for the first time, and four criminal lunatics,
who had for a long time been free from appearance of insanity, were so trans-
ferred under the Chief Commissioner's orders.
3. Of the 58 admissions during the year the causes of insanity are reported
as unknown in 28. Of the remaining 30, 16 are assigned to moral and 14 to
physical causes. The former includes 10 cases in the Jubbulpore Asylum ascribed
to starvation. This cause would seem to be more properly classed as physical,
but the details given by the Superintendent render it doubtful in several of these
cases whether hunger was really the efficient cause. Of the 14 " physical "
cases, 10 are ascribed to the use of ganja or bhang. The Administrative Medi-
cal Officer thinks that the number of such cases is likely to be increased by
physical suffering and depression. The Nagpur Superintendent thinks that
insanity is often ascribed to ganja when this is only a secondary cause at
most.
The instructions in the Resolution of the Government of India in the Home
Department, No. 16-Medical-576-86, dated the 16th July 1896, that Magistrates
should, when desired by Superintendents of Asylums, make further enquiry into
the cause of insanity or upon any other point regarding which the information
furnished in respect of lunatics was obscure or obviously incorrect, were duly
circulated. They do not, however, appear to have received such full attention as is
desirable. The Superintendent of the Jubbulpore Asylum says he has not received
sufficient assistance in this way, and he remarks that where a lunatic's village
and relatives are known, some precise information might fairly be expected. In
this the Chief Commissioner agrees. The Superintendent of the Nagpur Asylum
also quotes cases of inaccurate or fanciful information furnished by local authorities.
The supply of full particulars regarding a lunatic's previous history is of the
first importance in the treatment of insanity, and the Chief Commissioner requests
that special attention may be paid to the instructions on this point.
4. The Jubbulpore Asylum was slightly less healthy than in the previous
year; the number of deaths was the same, 11. In Nagpur the number of