BRIEF NOTES TO ACCOMPANY THE ANNUAL STATEMENTS OF
THE LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES
FOR THE YEAR 1909.
The additional accommodation required to allow the Nagpur Asylum to
receive the remaining lunatics at Jubbulpore had been practically completed by
the end of the year, and it is anticipated that the transfer will have been com-
pleted and the Jubbulpore Asylum finally closed by the end of February 1910.
Statement I.
2. Thirty-five males and 20 females were admitted, and 9 males were re-
admitted into Nagpur Asylum during 1909, and 31 males
were admitted into Jubbulpore Asylum (where only males
were under treatment). The admissions were 7 less in Nagpur and 4 more
in Jubbulpore than in the preceding year. The discharges from the former
Asylum were 16 males and 2 females "cured", 12 males and 5 females trans-
ferred to their friends "improved "and 1 female "not improved", and 22 males
and 9 females " died ". At Jubbulpore the discharges "cured" numbered 16,
3 were transferred " improved " and 2 " died ". At the close of the year there
remained at Nagpur 127 males and 72 females and at Jubbulpore 109 males.
The daily average strength at Nagpur was 134.87 males and 71.81 females and
at Jubbulpore 102.38 males, or for the Province 237.25 males and 71.81 females,
in all 309.06. There was no overcrowding at Nagpur: at Jubbulpore the
maximum on any one night rose to 110 on a capacity ot 109 (at 54 square feet
per head). The daily average number sick was, at Nagpur, 2.14 males and 1.12
females and 1.32 males at Jubbulpore: these figures were—as compared with
1908—less in Nagpur by 3.15 (0.62 in females) and in Jubbulpore by 0.74.
The deaths at Nagpur were due to the exhaustion of acute mania (16), old age
and debility (6), epileptic attacks (6), dysentery (2) and paralysis (1). The
Jubbulpore deaths were from pulmonary tuberculosis and from exhaustion (chronic
melancholia—persistent refusal of food : artificial feeding).
Statement II.
3. The number of criminal lunatics confined at Nagpur slightly increased
by about 8 per cent. The total number of admissions
of criminal lunatics was 18—12 at Nagpur and 6 at Jubbul-
pore. The daily average strength was 71.80 against 77.16 in 1908. Five males
and one female were discharged at Nagpur and six males were discharged at
Jubbulpore: and the number on the rolls at the end of the year was in all 79 (67
males and 12 females), against 75 at the close of 1908.
4. Statements III and IX call for no remark.
Statements IV and V.
5. The Superintendent of the Nagpur Asylum notes that there was an
appreciable increase in the number of labourers admitted
this year into his Asylum, for which fact he is unable to
suggest any explanation: he also points out that the ages on admission varied
considerably from those of the previous two years, only one having been admitted
below the age of 20 years and 16 over 40, the figures for the ages between 20
and 40 remaining fairly constant.
Statement VI.
6. Mania as usual heads the list in order of frequency of admissions,
accounting for 84 per cent of them, melancholia for
13 per cent and dementia and idiocy for 1 per cent. Of
those discharged, recovered or improved, as many as 83 per cent had suffered
from mania.
Statement VII.
7. Considerable attention appears to have been paid in tracing the cause
of insanity in lunatics sent to Nagpur, where less than
1/16th of the new admissions were returned as from
"unknown causes", while in Jubbu'pore the proportion of "unknown causes'
was nearly ¼th of the total admissions. The Superintendent of the Nagpur
Asylum, however, doubts the reliability of the causes of insanity assigned in new
admissions which he says are probably incorrectly returned.