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perhaps more deadly than in any former year. Cholera, as has often been remarked, is more
liable to appear among lunatics than among any other class of the community.
Table 14 shows the greater prevalence of cholera during the last 28 years among the
inmates of the Asylum than among the prisoners in the adjacent jail.
This liability appears due to several causes;—to the greater susceptibility of madmen to
irritating and inflammatory diseases of the bowels; to the difficulty in inducing them to keep
properly covered at night, and to the insufficient accommodation that has been provided up to
the present time for them in Asylums.
The wards and cells were fumigated daily with sulphurous acid vapour, the floors were
" lepoed" regularly, and the walls were white-washed frequently.
Those attacked with cholera were isolated. MacDougall's powder was sprinkled on the
bedding and around the sick person, and the dejections were disinfected and buried. In only
one instance did cholera attack any of the attendants.
The lunatic attendants were most kind and unselfish in their care of the sick.
On several occasions the Visitors were consulted as to moving the lunatics into other
buildings, but no place could be got; and as the disease never appeared in an epidemic form,
it was decided to keep them in the Asylum. Dr. Mouat arrived most opportunely when the
disease was most prevalent. On finding how few of the male lunatics were provided with
sheltered accommodation he at once placed the Jail Hospital at my disposal. This additional
space at once diminished the crowding, and after that date no case of cholera occurred in the
Asylum.
The experience of the two last years has satisfied me that a large proportion of the
lunatics die from the effects of cold. From a carefully drawn up table of the mortality in
this Asylum during past years, it appears that of 876 deaths 270 occurred between March
and June, 219 between July and October, and 387, or 44.17 per cent., between November and
February. As regards cholera, the registers show that between 1841 and 1867, 128 cases
of cholera occurred in the Asylum. Of these 70, or 54.6 per cent., were admitted during
November, December, and January. In the jail, during 27 years, the proportion of admissions
from cholera during these three months was only 22.1 per cent., and in the Mitford
Hospital only 22.4.
The dormitories in which lunatics sleep cannot have too much ventilation during the hot
months; but at those seasons when great and sudden alterations of temperature occur, as in
the winter months, it is of vital importance that the inmates should be properly protected from
cold. The tât (canvas) curtains which were hung in all the Verandahs in 1868 were found
to be useless. They allowed the wind to pass through them, and the dormitories were almost as
cold as before. At Dr. Mouat's suggestion mats made of coarse reed (darma) were fixed in
front of all the doors facing the north. They have answered admirably, and the lunatics are
very much pleased with the warmth and comfort they now enjoy at nights.
This simple and cheap arrangement must have a most marked and beneficial effect on the
health of the lunatics, and when the other improvements, now in course of execution, are
completed, the great mortality among the inmates of this Asylum will in every probability
be permanently reduced.
Statement No. 9 shows the expenses incurred on account of the Lunatic Asylum for the
year 1868.