3
at the end of the year was therefore 502. Thus criminal lunatics constituted
45.15 and 50 per cent. of the total admissions and re-admissions into the
Lunatic Asylums. The proportion of discharges and deaths among the
criminal lunatics to total discharges and deaths was 51.25 and 38.82 per cent.
The corresponding figures for 1911 were :—admissions, 47.81 ; re-admissions.
47.62 ; discharges, 56.03 ; and deaths, 36.14 per cent. The daily average
strength of this class of lunatics was 498.70 as compared with 493.52 of 1911.
The proportion of discharges and deaths to daily average strength of the
criminal side was 6.08 and 15.11 per cent. as compared with 7.59 and
16.45 in 1911.
Nine harmless criminal lunatics convicted of trivial offences were released
during the year in pursuance of the orders of Government enjoining the
release of such cases. In the Dacca Lunatic Asylum six other lunatics of this
nature were selected for release, but for want of any relatives to take charge
of them they could not be discharged.
STATEMENTS III, IV & V.
8. The statements mentioned in the margin
speak for themselves and need no comment.
STATEMENT VI.
9. Types of insanity.—The form of this statement has been revised
and enlarged, in order to allow of the types of
insanity being returned under the more detailed
heads given in the new Nomenclature of Diseases. As usual mania under
its various sub-heads was the common type of insanity, of which 77 patients
were admitted or 29.06 per cent. of total admissions against 66 or 26.51
per cent. in 1911. This type is however more tractable qua cure and 38
patients recovered and 6 improved. Melancholia with 49 admissions or 18.49
per cent. to total comes next in numerical importance. The number of
recoveries from this type was only 18. Delusional insanity accounts for 38
admissions with 14 recoveries. Insanity due to smoking ganja was respon-
sible for 33 admissions with 20 recoveries. Then comes idiocy with 13
admissions. As was to be expected, not a single one of the 77 cases of this
type that were under treatment recovered ; two improved very slightly. Five
cases of general paralysis of the insane were admitted (all either Europeans
or Eurasians), viz., four in the Bhowanipore Asylum and one in the Dacca
Lunatic Asylum. It is very doubtful whether all these can be said to be
genuine cases of this type of insanity.
STATEMENT VII.
10. Ætiological factor.— The form prescribed for this statement (which
came into force last year) is not at all clear, and
seems to be defective. It is difficult to see how
the total of columns 2—7 " Predisposing " and '' Exciting " causes (to be shown
in columns 8—10) can be made to agree with the total number of patients
actually admitted. Another defect is that there are no means of showing side
by side the predisposing and exciting causes of a case, and this is considered
to be necessary if the statement is to be of any value. For example, if
heredity be the predisposing cause of insanity in a particular case in which
some toxic agent is the exciting cause, its predisposing cause will have to be
returned in columns 2—4 against item A, while the exciting cause must be
shown in columns 5—7 against item H. In the absence of any instruction for
filling up this statement, local officers have shown the admissions either
under " Predisposing " or under '' Exciting " causes. Thus 54 lunatics are
shown as having been admitted from " Predisposing causes,'' who had
apparently no exciting cause, and 211 from " Exciting causes," of whom no
predisposing cause has been indicated. The Ætiological factor in 57 cases is
alleged to have been toxic (chiefly ganja), in 35 cases heredity (all under
'' insane "), in 12 cases mental instability (chiefly congenital mental defect),
in 11 critical period (mostly " senility "). and in 10 mental stress. No causes
are assigned in 129 cases.
STATEMENT VIII.
11. Finance.—There was an increase of Rs. 21,274 in the cost for the
maintenance of the Lunatic Asylums in the
Presidency, the total expenditure under the various
heads having been Rs. 1,91,301 as compared with Rs. 1,70,028 in 1911.
The excess occurred under all heads. except under '' Bazar medicines,"
'' Rates and taxes " and " Printing charges." The largest excess, viz.,
Rs. 11,854, was under Public Works Department charges. which was due
B2