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As usual, dysentery and diarrhœa carried off the majority of the fatal cases, there being
ten cases of both. Of the nine dysentery cases, not one was struck down in robust health ;
four were cases of old age; and the other five were admitted feeble and emaciated.
V.—The conservancy of the Asylum has been carefully attended to, the dry-earth sys-
tem being enforced as strictly as possible. I have largely used McDougall's Disinfecting Powder,
and find it very valuable as a deodoriser. Until the inundation, the cells were regularly
leeped, and are so now, except in the south end of the male Asylum, where the damp still
prevails so greatly.
VI.—The food of the insanes has, on the whole, been good. Tricks have at times been
played with the ata; and to prevent their occurrence, I am anxious to grind our own flour
on the premises.
VII.—The clothing has been ample, and of good quality, every part of it manu-
factured in the Asylum; and its regular washing has been strictly attended to. But
we have suffered a good deal at the hands of unruly patients, male and female, whole
tháns of dosootee having been torn into shreds, and numerous blankets consigned to the
same fate.
VIII.—The manufactures are carried on steadily within certain limits. Insanes will
work steadily in the beaten paths; but it is rather difficult to lead them across country
by teaching them arts entirely new to them, for they are by no means sharp in picking up
knowledge, and Return No. 6 will show that we have not a very large stock of workmen
to draw upon.
However, we manage, in a considerable degree, to pay our way, and have a nice balance
to our credit as well.
IX.—I have repeatedly had occasion to draw attention to the unsatisfactory, if not
illegal, manner in which alleged insanes are sent to the Asylum. In many instances
patients have been sent in with merely a scrap of vernacular writing; in others no proper
descriptive roll is sent; or if it is, the information is most meagre, and at times contra-
dictory. Rarely, if ever, is the strict order requiring personal examination by a Magistrate
carried out, and the consequence is that many a man, reeling about the bazar intoxicated
with ganjah or spirit, finds himself, on coming to his senses, an inmate of a Lunatic Asylum.
And this incarceration, however temporary, is by no means a trifling matter; for
let the man ever thereafter religiously eschew ganjah or spirit, he will never remove the
stigma from his name that he once was págul, and once an inmate of a págul-khána.
Return No. 4 shows how large a proportion of the admissions is due to ganjah and bhang.
Under the seduction and maddening influence of these poisons, so openly sold and easily
procured, many a career, opening hopefully and prosperously, has terminated in sorrow and
gloom. How bitterly the first, and perhaps only, whiff of that deadly chelum is lamented;
how hopelessly the first, and perhaps solitary, draught of bhang is deplored !
We must give the native credit for having feelings like ourselves. We must allow him a
conscience which, though it be frequently dormant, is still open to the chidings of remorse.
And it is a sad, though interesting, study to watch the workings of the mind in many
a poor patient. The reply with difficulty extracted,—the face hung down and averted,—
the love of silence and solitude,—all indicate the smitings of conscience and gnawings of
remorse, and excite a sincere pity for the unhappy victim to such seductions.