24
DULLUNDA ASYLUM.
increase the pointed significance of the facts. The men who have made the death-rate what
it has been, have never approached the garden or the work-sheds. They have come to the
place in extremity of weakness; they have lost all muscle for work and all stomach for
digestion; and nourishment and industry have been alike impossible to them. If indeed
I could have added to the number of the employed, I should have lessened the deaths from
nervous exhaustion. There is a kind of labour which is very deadly. The wild efforts of a
maniac struggling with attendants are exhausting beyond description, and life is always in
jeopardy while they last. When the lunatic can be subjected to the example of others' industry,
and the orderly exercise of his muscle can be substituted for delirious throes and spasms, his
risk of exhaustion becomes infinitely less. This is but one of the many uses of industry into
which it is not necessary to enter more particularly now.
12. For the first time during an incumbency of ten years I am compelled to report
a death from violence. A maniac was brutally ill-treated by a peon, and died from the
effects of it. The peon was convicted and imprisoned, and thus was obtained the only
possible satisfaction which can follow the occurrence of such a case. The crime occurred in
one of the few parts of the premises which are hidden from the overseer's windows, and
formed a very strong reason for what I have been for years endeavouring gradually to effect
in the complete exposure of every corner of the place to his unsuspected view.
The death by drowning admits of no explanation. The man went to bathe as usual
with a party; he was a swimmer and dived off the steps as he was accustomed to do.
Presently he was missed, and search was made for him without success. A lunatic who stood
by him when he dived, pointed out the spot and said that he had not seen him come to the
surface; but being busy in the water himself, had paid no further attention to his neighbour.
He dived in presence of the overseer who brought up the body. The water was shallow, but
there was no sign of bruise or injury; no entanglement of the body at the bottom, nor any
apparent cause for what occurred. The case was duly reported to the magistrate for judicial
inquiry. Cases of drowning similarly inexplicable occur from time to time among healthy
persons, and ignorance of the cause has led to the use of an indefinite term in recording
them, viz. " swimmer's cramp."
13. Cases of Insanity.—Table No. 4 calls for no particular remarks; it exhibits, as in
former years, the great preponderance of intoxication by gunja as a cause of madness. The
special return No. 16 shews the alleged causes in the criminal lunatics as directed in
Inspector-General's letter No. 115, dated 21st October 1870. Tables 5, 6, and 7, equally
need no comment.
14. Expenditure.—The 9th table exhibits the cost of the asylum. There has been no
alteration in the establishment, which, under increased numbers of inmates, becomes further
evidence of the economy and utility of a fixed scale. The cost of diet and clothing has been
determined by the liberal diet scale and the increasing number of lunatics.
15. Income.—The payments made for maintenance of lunatics have not reached so large
a sum as last year. The whole has been credited to Government with deduction only of
some monthly sums required for wages of servants specially engaged for paying patients.
16. Buildings.—During the year the extension of the female ward has been completed,
and the rooms occupied. In the month of November also work was resumed on the northern
addition to the main buildings, and up to the present time good progress has been made.
A very long desired and useful addition has been made to the asylum buildings from the
industrial funds at my disposal. There has been a want of a proper place for the lunatics to