( 2 )
overcrowding was slight and no inconvenience was felt, nor was the health
of the inmates affected. The extension of the Asylum at Berhampore will,
when completed, largely increase the capacity for patients, and be the means
of affording relief to other asylums which may be overcrowded.
5. In Statement No. VII, the causes of insanity in 53 out of the total of
186 admissions in 1892 are stated to be ganja-smoking and the use of bhang
against 54 in 1891. The Lieutenant-Governor desires that the Inspector-
General of Civil Hospitals, when inspecting the asylums, will enquire into
some of the cases attributed to ganja-smoking, and ascertain upon what data this
diagnosis is based. It is to be observed that in Statement No. VI only 40
of the admissions are shown to belong to the types of insanity caused by ganja-
smoking and the use of bhang. The suggestion has been made that it is as
reasonable to suppose that excessive ganja-smoking may be due to insanity, as
that insanity may be due to excessive use of ganja.
6. The number of admissions into hospital was 595 against 717 in
1891. These figures indicate a less severe incidence of sickness in the asylums
taken together, although at Dallanda and Patna there were more admis-
sions into hospital than in the previous year. The increase at Dallanda is
attributed to the occurrence of chicken-pox and to several cases of pneumonia
which were absent in 1891, and to the prevalence of bowel-complaints to a
greater extent than in the year before. There were 29 cases of chicken-pox
and 10 of pneumonia, while the admissions for bowel-complaints were 22
against 7 in 1891. At Patna the increase is said to be due to fever and
dysentery, and to disorders which these diseases leave in their train. As the
jail population at Patna and Alipore suffered similarly in 1892 from bowel-
complaints, pneumonia, and other disorders, it is inferred that the incidence
of sickness in the Dallanda and Patna Asylums must be ascribed to general
rather than to local influences. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the out-
break of cholera in the jail at every station where an asylum is situated except
Cuttack, the disease did not appear among the lunatics. There were 84 deaths
against 80 in 1891, the death ratio to the daily average strength being 8.74 per
cent. against 8.02 in the previous year. The increase in the death-rate is small
compared to what has been reported from the jails, where it has advanced
from 30.9 in 1891 to 43.9 per mille in 1892. The reported mortality in the
province generally has also increased from 26.94 in 1891 to 31.92 per mille
in 1892.
7. The record of injuries and accidents is very small, the total number
of cases being 11 against 16 in 1891. At Dallanda there were three injuries;
at Dacca there were two accidents and one injury; at Patna there was
one accident, and at Berhampore there were four cases of contusion. The
Lieutenant-Governor notices with satisfaction that only two of the injuries, one
of which was merely a contusion, were caused by the violent treatment of the
patients by their keepers, and that in both cases the warders were punished with
dismissal.
8. There were three escapes—one from each of the Asylums at Dallanda,
Patna, and Dacca—against two in the previous year.
The lunatics who
escaped from Dallanda and Patna were recaptured, but no trace could be
found of the other. The warders through whose carelessness the escapes
occurred were adequately punished.
9. The following statement shows the income and expenditure of the past
two years:—
INCOME.
1. Received from Treasury ... ...
2.
Ditto from paying-patients ...
1891.
Rs.
64,576
1,228
A.
5
14
P.
9
0
1892.
Rs.
63,232
1,754
A.
6
7
P.
9
6
3.
Ditto from Manufacture Department ... ... ...
4.
Ditto from the Public Works Department ... ... ...
5.
Ditto from Government Medical Store ... ... ...
6.
Ditto from Stationery Office ... ... ... ...
GRAND TOTAL ...
1891.
Rs. A. P.
...
...
16,917
11,544
433
80
94,780
7
7
4
4
12
10
5
4
9
1
1892.
Rs. A. P.
...
...
18,084
2,536
608
76
86,293
14
10
5
3
0
10
0
4
8
1