2
1,064 (868 males and 196 females) in 1911. The actual asylum capacity
being 844 on the male side and 200 on the female side, it is clear that there
was considerable overcrowding on the male side in spite of the provision for
increased accommodation in the Berhampore Lunatic Asylum at the beginning
of the year, where it was raised from 620 to 710 by converting the recreation
and certain other sheds (hitherto occupied by keepers) into wards for lunatics,
and constructing quarters for keepers outside. The accommodation on the
female side of the Bhowanipur Asylum was also raised from 24 to 28 by
subdividing some of the cells. I may add that additional accommodation
will shortly be ready at the Bhawanipur Asylum by converting some old
coach-houses and stables into wards for females and also building some
additional small single cells for males.
3. Discharges.—It is noticeable that the number discharged as cured
and improved was much larger than in the previous year, the figures being
117 and 32 against 74 and 28 for 1911. The number of discharges among
European lunatics as cured and improved was 4 and 5, being 8.43 and 10.54
per cent. of the daily average strength of European lunatics against 11.23
and 2.24 per cent. respectively in 1911 ; while the numbers discharged as
cured and improved among the Indian population of the Lunatic Asylums
were 113 and 27 respectively, the percentages calculated on daily average
strength of Indian lunatics having been 11.12 and 2.65 as compared with
7.03 and 2.75 in 1911.
4. Injuries and accidents.—There were 10 cases of slight injuries and 19
of accidents of more or less serious nature among the patients of the Berham-
pore Lunatic Asylum : all the cases recovered. In the Dacca Lunatic Asylum
there was one fatal case of head injury, the result of an accidental fall.
5. Escapes.—There were no escapes from any of the Lunatic Asylums.
6. Sickness and mortality.—The year was a comparatively healthy one
for the inmates of the Lunatic Asylums, there having been only 487
admissions into hospital against 830 in 1911 ; the proportion of sick to daily
average strength was 7.95 against 8.20 per cent. No cases of small-pox or
cholera occurred in the asylums. The admissions from fever were much
smaller, viz., 109 against 181. This was partly due to the regular use
of quinine as a prophylactic. Against this I have to report that there was a
larger prevalence of dysentery in the Dacca Lunatic Asylum than in the
previous year, 52 patients having been admitted into hospital from that cause
against only 31 in 1911 ; the precautions taken at the Berhampore Lunatic
Asylum in watching over filthy patients, and in seeing that they kept on
their clothes, and ate nothing that was likely to predispose to diarrhœa or
dysentery, resulted in a considerable reduction in these diseases. The
mortality, viz., 85 (including one death from accident), was slightly higher than
in 1911 when it was 83 ; the percentage of deaths to daily average strength
was however lower, viz., 7.99 against 8.09. Phthisis was responsible for 35
deaths (41.17 per cent. of total deaths), dysentery for 10 (11.76 per cent.),
pneumonia for 2 (2.35 per cent.), septicœmia for 5 (5.88 per cent.), epilepsy for
9 (10.59 per cent.) and tuberculosis for 2 (2.35 per cent.). No deaths resulted
from fever or diarrhœa. The death-rate amongst lunatics in the different
provinces in India in 1912 was as follows :—
Bengal, 7.99 per cent.; United Provinces, 9.56; Central Provinces, 10.20;
Panjab, 10.40; Bihar and Orissa, 10.56 ; Madras, 11.26; Bombay, 15.3; Assam,
20.23 ; and Burma, 25.78.
It will be observed that in 1912 the death-rate in the Bengal Asylums
was considerably lower than in the Lunatic Asylums of any other part of
India.
One case of leprosy was admitted into the Berhampore Asylum, raising
the number of such patients to four. These are doubtful cases, and as none of
them presents any active evidence of the disease, they have not yet been
transferred to the ward for leper insanes at the Gobra Leper Asylum.
STATEMENT II.
7. Criminal lunatics.—There were 496 criminal lunatics in the asylums
of Bengal on the 1st January 1912 ; 107 and 14
lunatics were admitted and re-admitted, against
which 82 were discharged and 33 died. The number of criminal lunatics