( 2 )
5. Dr. Newman reports that the accommodation available was everywhere
more than sufficient, and the figures show that 757 was the largest number
confined on any one night, while the asylums are calculated to be able to
contain 1,137, allowing 50 superficial square feet for each patient. The Super-
intendent of the Dullunda Asylum indeed complained of inadequate accommo-
dation for females, but since the close of the year measures have been taken to
relieve the overcrowding in this asylum by transferring patients who come
from other provinces to asylums situated within those provinces.
6. Statements VI and VII have been revised and simplified in accordance
with the orders of the Government of India received last year. In the former
are shown the types, and in the latter the alleged causes, of insanity. Of a
total of 181 admissions, 104 are classified under mania, 28 under melancholia,
and the remainder under various other types; 60 are ascribed to physical causes,
27 to moral, and 94 to " causes unknown." Of the 60 cases attributed to physical
causes, 20 cases are entered as due to ganja, 6 to spirit drinking, 1 to excessive
study, 14 to heredity, and 19 to other causes. Not a single case was ascertained
to have been brought on by the use of charas, bhang or opium. Although the
number of cases ascribed to indulgence in ganja has fallen from 40 in 1894
to 20 in the past year, there is still a tendency to exaggerate the frequency of
this cause, and much care has been taken in every asylum to test the descrip-
tive roll and avoid a mistaken diagnosis on this point.
7. The number of admissions to hospital during the year decreased
from 95 4 to 898, but the average daily number of sick rose from 58.81 to
84.64. At Dullunda there were 122 fewer admissions to hospital, which was
due chiefly to the prophylactic measures introduced, the periodical weighment
of the patients, and the formation of an "infirm gang," the members of which
received medicines and extra diet without being admitted to hospital. There
were three cases of cholera at Dullunda and two at Berhampore during the
year, the disease being prevalent in the neighbourhood in both instances.
At the former asylum 161 lunatics were inoculated by M. Haffkine early in May,
as cholera at that time threatened to become epidemic. The mortality during the
year was higher than in any of the past ten years, the number of deaths rising
from 73 to 90, and the death-rate from 8.15 to 9.84. This death-rate is lower
than that shown by Madras, the Panjab and Rangoon for 1895, but higher
than that of Bombay and the North-Western Provinces for the same year.
Thirty of the deaths occurred at Dacca and 25 at the Dullunda Asylum.
The question of the employment of the insane on penal labour, which was
commented on in last year's Resolution, has received careful attention, and in
consequence the manufacture of mustard oil at Dacca, and at Patna all manu-
factures that required hard labour from the lunatics, have been discontinued.
To determine exactly what is and what is not suitable employment for a
lunatic is a difficult question, and has been postponed for the present pending the
establishment of a central lunatic asylum, where more systematic treatment can
be resorted to than is possible under existing conditions. The Lieutenant-
Governor is glad to notice that greater efforts are being made to render the
lives of the lunatics as happy as possible. Various amusements were provided
at all the asylums ; musical instruments as well as pet animals were allowed to
many patients, and in Calcutta some of the lunatics were taken to see the
Zoological Gardens.
The system of placing dry earth on the floors, doubts about the advisability
of which for Dullunda were entertained, is reported to have answered admirably
in the wards where filthy patients were kept. The visitors, however, reported
against its general use in the asylum.
8. There were 16 injuries and accidents against 22 in 1895. There was
one sudden death at Dullunda, the cause of which could not be ascertained,
but which is reported to have been due to either an injury or an accident.
At Berhampore one lunatic got concussion of the brain by a fall from a tree
he had climbed to steal lichis, and another had his leg broken from the stone
of an oil-mill falling on it. There were five escapes from Dullunda and one
from Patna during the year. In every instance the lunatics were recap-
tured. At Patna the female warder in charge was dismissed, and for four of
the escapes at Dullunda the warders who were responsible were punished.