FINANCIAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
DARJEELING, THE 31ST MAY 1915.
RESOLUTION—No. 80T.—Medl.
READ—
The Triennial Report on Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for the years 1912, 1913 and 1914.
READ ALSO—
The Annual Returns of the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for 1912 and 1913 with the remarks
recorded thereon by the Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, Bengal.
THE report under review deals with the lunatic asylums of Bengal as
reconstituted in 1912. There are three asylums in Bengal—at Berhampore,
Bhowanipur (24-Parganas) and Dacca. The figures quoted for the previous
triennium refer to the asylums at these places.
2. The problem of accommodation for the insane population of Bengal
is one that has been before this Government for some years, and the statistics
of population are therefore of special interest at the present time. The daily
average strength was 1,063.43 in 1912, 1,084.51 in 1913, and 1,068.76 in 1914,
giving a mean average of 1,072.23. for the triennium as against 984.73 for the
period 1909-11.
This increase has not been the result of a greater number of admissions,
for although the number reached the high figure of 237 in 1912 it fell
during 1913 and 1914, and the yearly average for the triennium was 200
against 218 of the previous three years. While the decline in the past two years
was in part accounted for by the closure of the Dacca Asylum to lunatics
from Assam, it was more probably due to the endeavour which was noticed
in the last triennial review to restrict admissions to lunatics whose detention
in an asylum is absolutely necessary, and to exclude harmless lunatics who
could well be supported and taken care of by their friends and relations.
This view finds some support in the statistics of discharges, which show
a considerable falling off in the number of cases discharged as cured during
the same period. The mortality has shown no great change, but the fall in
the number of cures in the past two years, coupled with the number of
admissions, would tend to show that care has been taken to refrain from
sending the less serious cases of lunacy to the asylums, and that the asylum
population consists mainly of cases in which a cure is almost hopeless. It is
likely therefore in future that the number of admissions will exceed to some
extent the number of deaths and discharges and cause a rise in the daily
average. But the excess will not be great and in fact the average excess
during the past three years was considerably less than that of the previous
triennium.
3. To meet this increasing population, increased accommodation was
provided in each of the three asylums in 1912, and in the last two years of
the period there was room for 888 males and 206 females as compared with
754 and 196 in 1911. But the need for further accommodation is still
pressing. The mean strength (1,072) approximates too closely to the accom-
modation available, and actually in each of the three years more than 1,100
persons were confined in one night, the greatest number being 1,134
in 1913. The accommodation at Dacca and Bhowanipur is at present just
sufficient, but Berhampore stands in great need of extension and the Surgeon-
General is submitting proposals to this end. This will, however, be but a
temporary expedient and will only enable matters to be carried on until the
new Central Asylum at Ranchi is constructed. It is understood that the
Government of Bihar and Orissa has submitted to the Imperial Government