4
DULLUNDA ASYLUM.
Under the head of workshop sales, a sum of Rs. 1,024 may be observed. A forge was
set up and a carpenter's shop some time ago. From the proceeds a carpenter and smith are
employed as instructors ; and it has happened in several instances that among the inmates,
artisans whose skill was unknown before, on seeing their accustomed work going on, have
declared themselves at once, and become useful and profitable workmen. Various articles of
manufacture and repairs of furniture, &c., have produced the profit entered in the return.
During the year a good deal of outside employment has been found for the lunatics.
Parties of laborers have been engaged by the officers of the telegraph yard, and the draining
and levelling of the site of the Alipore Lock Hospital were executed entirely by them. The
pecuniary result appears under the head of " lunatic labor," which also includes some small
sums received from the Public Works Department on account of alterations in the main
buildings carried out by the inmates.
Buildings.—The additions to the buildings mentioned in former reports were commenced
in the early part of 1869, and progressed rapidly until they were suddenly arrested by finan-
cial pressure. The northern extensions were carried up to the floor level only. In the
buildings of the female ward there was a little more progress. Several feet of wall were
added, but unfortunately this only resulted in great inconvenience, as the building rose to
the level of the boundary wall, and being situated close to this wall, provided the women
with ready means of escape. This was some time since pointed out to the Public Works
Department, and an urgent request submitted for the completion of this portion of the works,
but no further progress has been made. The asylum is, necessarily, more crowded than ever.
General treatment and management.—There has been no change to report under this head
during the year. The system, of which full details have been given from year to year, has
been carried out without alteration. The overcrowding of the asylum is, as I have
intimated, very great; and is, I believe, if not the main cause, at least a strong auxiliary, in
producing that cachectic state which arises within the place. Escapes have been rather more
numerous than usual, but the number has not been large. The grounds have been frequented
by workmen employed on the buildings, who of necessity mix freely with lunatics whose
own work lies scattered about the place, and the confusion adds much to the difficulty of
keeping efficient watch on the people. Escape, however, is never allowed to pass unpunished.
The visits of the official visitors have been regularly made. The number of criminal
lunatics is now very large, and the alteration of the Criminal Procedure Code, under which
quarterly, instead of annual reports are required, renders the duties of visitors much more
onerous than before. The institution was visited by His Excellency the Viceroy and His
Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
I have again to speak in the highest terms of overseer Bancroft, to whose intelligence and
rare activity is due whatever there may be of success and progress in the asylum. My own
duty of devising and directing improvements is but a small and easy part compared with the
fatiguing and often irksome task of carrying them out, especially where there is constant
suggestion of change added to the routine work of the day, which, done as it is by Mr.
Bancroft, is alone more than sufficient for one man. His office duty, always an impediment
to him, has been much increased by the new method of treating criminals, and it is of a
kind which does not resolve itself sufficiently into routine to admit of full benefit being derived
from the service of a native clerk.
The native doctor of whom I had reported unfavorably was removed during the year,
and his place supplied by Sheikh Bahadoor, a man who bore a high character in the military
service, and I have no doubt deserved it; but the hospital system of a regiment does not