LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
5
The proportion that criminal lunatics bear to the whole number confined in asylums is
20.62 per cent., while in England the proportion is about 1.3 per cent.
It is interesting and important to contrast the statistical results of the asylums of this
province with the county and borough asylums of England. I shall take for this purpose
the report of the commissioners in lunacy for the year 1868, the latest which I have received.
As regards population, these English asylums exhibit a much higher residual population
than the Bengal asylums, and a much more rapid growth. Thus, the increase in the six
years 1864-69, taking the 1st of January census in each, was 25 per cent. as regards the
pauper residents, while the corresponding increase in the Bengal asylums for the six years
1865-70 was 15.6 per cent. In England, in five years, 1864-68, the daily average strength
for the same class of asylums was, to total admissions, as 1 to 1.5: in India, in five years,
1865-69, the same proportion was 1 to 3. In 1868 each lunatic in county and borough
asylums spent 287.34 days in the asylums; in Bengal, in 1870, the corresponding number
spent 246.34. These figures plainly prove the position above laid down, and must be borne
in mind in considering comparatively all the statistics of the year.
5. Admissions.—The admission rate of the year per cent. of mean population is 51.8
against 60.2, the average of the preceding five years. The relative decrease of accessions
indicates in this case a larger population and longer residence, because the number of
admissions shows a trifling increase of 7.6 on the same average. The greater the residual
population and the longer the residence, the less this rate, which thus represents an interest-
ing statistical fact, analogous to the birth-rate of a general population. The corresponding
rate for English county and borough asylums in 1868 was 28.1. The re-admissions were
12.3 per cent. of the primary admissions in 1870, against 7.6, the average of 1865-69.
The number of admissions is no index of the amount of lunacy existing among the population
at large, nor can the variations of admissions from year to year, which depend on many
causes apart from the actual number of lunatics who are or become insane, indicate even
approximately the variations of lunacy production. The relative number of lunatics to
population is therefore entirely unknown, and the increase or decrease of lunacy among the
people of the province equally so.
It is difficult to conceive how or when this information shall be obtained under existing
circumstances.
As regards caste and sex, the admissions of one year may be compared with another, or
with several years preceding; but the information so exhibited is of comparatively little value
in the absence of a correct basis of comparison, and is moreover vitiated by the fact that
the lunatics admitted are a mere fraction of the lunatics living. These facts are shewn in
the following statement:—
No. 4.
Class and Sex of Persons Admitted and Re-admitted.
1870.
ASYLUMS.
Dullunda
...
...
...
Dacca
...
...
...
Patna
...
...
...
Cuttack
...
...
...
Moydapore
...
...
...
Total ...
HINDOOS.
Males.
101
42
62
15
11
231
Females.
36
6
18
4
2
66
MAHOMEDANS.
Males.
32
18
16
2
4
72
Females.
9
11
3
...
2
25
CHRISTIANS.
Males.
2
...
...
1
...
3
Females.
4
......
......
......
......
4
TOTAL ADMISSIONS
AND RE-ADMISSIONS
DURING THE YEAR.
Males.
135
60
78
18
15
306
Females.
49
17
21
4
4
95
Total of
admissions and
re-admissions.
184
77
99
22
19
401
Of the total admissions and re-admissions—
74.06 per cent. were Hindoos, against 75.35 in 1869.
24.18 „ „
Mahomedans „ 23.20 „
1.74 „ „
Christians
„ 1.43 „
B