No. 3897.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces,
in the General Department, dated Nagpur, the 30th May 1898.
READ—
The Annual Report and Statements of the Lunatic Asylums in the Central Provinces
for the year 1897.
RESOLUTION.
The total population of the two asylums in the year 1897 was 382, of whom
205 were detained at Nagpur and 177 in the asylum at Jubbulpore.
The numbers in each asylum at the close of the year were the same as in
the preceding year, but the daily average population of both asylums was lower.
2. The percentage of cured to total population was 6.54, or the same as
in 1896, while the percentage of cured to daily average strength rose from 7.53
to 7.87.
The past four years have been marked by a steady and satisfactory
increase in the percentage cured, which is partly due to the system now adopted
of transferring criminal lunatics on recovery to a Central Jail. There appears
however to be a difference in the classification of lunatics discharged at the
two asylums, due probably to a difference of professional opinion. While in
Nagpur 11 lunatics, of whom four were criminal lunatics declared fit to stand
their trial, are shown as " discharged otherwise," the Jubbulpore returns include
no such cases. The two criminal lunatics at that asylum found fit to take
their trial have been shown as discharged cured.
3. Of the 62 admissions during the year, the causes of insanity are reported
as unknown in 31 cases. Out of 30 admissions at Nagpur, the cause of insanity
in 21 is reported to be unknown, while in Jubbulpore, with 32 admissions, the cause
has been ascertained in all but 10 cases. In the Resolution of last year the
Chief Commissioner requested that special attention should be paid to the instruc-
tions regarding the supply of full particulars of a lunatic's history, and he is surprised
to observe the large proportion of cases at Nagpur in which the cause of insanity
is returned as unknown.
Of the 31 cases in which the cause of insanity has been ascertained,
four are assigned to moral and 27 to physical causes. Among the latter are
10 cases admitted into the Jubbulpore asylum ascribed to privation, and in most
of these the recovery, both mental and physical, has been rapid. No such cases
are reported from Nagpur. In eight cases the cause of insanity is believed to be
the use of ganja.
4. Both asylums were less healthy than in the previous year. In the
Nagpur asylum the year 1896 was unusually healthy, and it is therefore undesir-
able to compare the number of deaths this year with the returns of that year only.
In 1894 there were 13 deaths and in 1895 12 deaths against only seven in 1896.
The return for the present year of 14 deaths is therefore only a little above the
normal. Of these 14 deaths, two were due to an outbreak of cholera. The
number of admissions to hospital was 59 as against 50 in 1896. In Jubbulpore
there were 13 deaths in 1897 and 108 admissions into hospital, compared with
11 deaths and 109 admissions in 1896.
5. Owing to the high price of food-grains, the expenditure per head per
annum has risen at both asylums, but especially at Nagpur, where the rise in
prices was greatest. The mean cost is, however, still below that in asylums
of other Provinces for the year 1896.