100
REPORT ON THE
Details of fatal
cases.
No. 4.—A woman, aged 40, had been in the asylum seven and a half years, was under treat-
ment for two months for chronic diarrhœa, from which she died on the 1st March. Mental
disease, chronic mania.
No. 5.—A criminal, aged 30, transferred from the jail. He had been in a very weak
and anæmic condition for more than a year, and died on March 4th, in twelve hours from a
sudden attack of violent diarrhœa. Mental condition, melancholia.
No. 6.—A man, aged 40, died on June 9th ; was under constant medical treatment for
two months, during which time he rapidly lost strength and flesh, and at last became almost
paralytic. He was nearly 12 months in the asylum. Mental condition, dementia.
No. 7.—A man, aged 20, admitted into the asylum on the 8th March. He was then in
an extremely weak and wasted state, and was just kept alive by food and stimulants. He
died on the 13th June. Mental condition, acute mania.
No. 8.—A criminal, aged 43, transferred from the jail on 13th April, after two years
imprisonment. Died June 24th. He remained the whole time in an apathetic state, and
gradually sank from exhaustion without any active symptoms. Mental disease, melancholia.
No. 9.—A man, aged 22, admitted into the asylum on June 12th, suffering from chronic
dysentery and great emaciation, from which he never recovered, and died August 26th.
Mental disease, acute mania.
No. 10.—A criminal, aged 29, admitted into the asylum from Sumbulpore in August
1871; died September 6th, 1872. He was attacked with diarrhœa in the beginning of
August, and gradually died from exhaustion. Mental disease, chronic mania.
No. 11.—A woman, aged 58, three years in the asylum. For several months before her
death, she got into bad health; had œdematous swelling of the limbs, and suffered from
constantly recurring attacks of dysentery, and died of debility. Mental disease, chronic mania.
No. 12.—A feeble old man suffering from elephantiasis. He had been more than seven
years in the asylum, and for a long period was just kept alive by good feeding and nursing.
He died of debility only. Mental disease, dementia following acute mania.
No. 13.—A woman old and broken in health, eight years in the asylum, for a long
time suffered from great anæmia with dropsical swellings, and died on the 22nd October.
Mental disease, melancholia.
There is nothing particularly calling for remark about the causes of death.
No. 3 was a case of suicide. No. 4 a case of acute disease, and the rest all cases of
chronic disease in debilitated, broken-down constitutions, such as so frequently in the end
follows mental disease.
Nos. 2, 7, 9, were in completely broken health on admission into the asylum. In the
rest the diseases came on gradually.
In cases of confirmed melancholia and chronic dementia, the general health after
a time almost always begins to fail. In a small asylum where the numbers are not sufficient
to keep up a steady average, an excessive mortality in one year, and a very low rate in
another, are often mere accidental circumstances.
Statistics of the
year.
6. At the end of 1871 there were remaining 55 lunatics—41 males and 14 females;
of this, 10 males and 2 females were criminals.
During the year there were 14 admissions—13 males and 1 female; and 6 of these
were criminals—8 were cases of acute mania, 4 of chronic, 1 melancholia, and 1 dementia.