20
DACCA ASYLUM.
XVI. The asylum has been regularly visited by the visitors, and frequently inspected
by the Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, Dr. Buckle, C.B. It has also been inspected
by the Inspector-General of Jails, Lower Provinces, and by the Sanitary Commissioner for
Bengal, by both of whom minutes expressive of their opinions on the condition of the asylum
were written, and I believe forwarded for the information of His Honor the Lieutenant-
Governor of Bengal.
XVII. Thus frequently inspected and reported on as the asylum has this year been
His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal will have been well informed concerning the
general management of the institution. I am happy to be able to add that having now got
through much of the heavy work which had to be done in clearing away the debris of houses,
and in bringing the new grounds of the institution under cultivation, there is reason to believe
that the outturn from manufactures at this asylum will during the year 1870 be more
satisfactory. Already the garden is yielding a considerable monthly income ; various branches
of industry are being developed in the work-sheds; the preparation on a large scale of castor-
oil is being commenced; and yet further resources in industrial labor will be developed as
the idiosyncracies of the inmates of the institution are more intimately understood.
I have the honor to be,
SIR,
Your most obedient servant,
H. C. CUTCLIFFE, F.R.C.S.,
Offg. Civil Surgeon, and Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum, Dacca.
THE Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, MR. H. B. BUCKLE, C.B., in trans-
mitting this report, makes the following remarks :—
IN forwarding the annual returns of the Dacca Lunatic Asylum for the consideration
of the Inspector-General of Hospitals, and submission to the Government of Bengal, attention
is requested to the remarks of the superintendent on the high rate of mortality at the
asylum.
2. The number of lunatics during the year 1869 has been 312, with 41 deaths, or
13.14 deaths per cent. Separating the males from the females, the result is 259 males with
31 deaths, or 11.969 deaths per cent.; 53 females with 10 deaths, or 18.868 per cent. During
the previous year, 1868, the rate of mortality was a little higher, being 14.01 per cent. With
the present returns the superintendent has had a table, No. 10, prepared, shewing in a
tabulated form the ratio of deaths to the mean temperature of each month, and the amount
of accommodation which the asylum has been capable of affording. The deduction is, that in
both the past and in the previous years the high rate of mortality has been influenced by
cold and overcrowding—preventible causes; and the adoption of the recommendations to
warm the new wards by stoves, and that the Public Works Department be directed to com-
plete the new female ward and hospital, is earnestly urged.
3. The insanitary state of the town of Dacca, and the constant presence of cholera,
especially in November and December, and again in April and May, before the rains set in,
make it of the utmost importance that overcrowding, or any cause likely to affect the health
of the inmates of the asylum, should be sedulously guarded against.
4. The superintendent has explained how much of the lunatic labor has been
devoted to the very useful and desirable object of levelling the new ground taken in and