4
LUNATIC ASYLUMS OF BENGAL.
With the exception of the years 1890 and 1891 the number of criminal
lunatics under treatment exceeded that of any year in the ten years ending with
1892. The cause of this increase is not clear. It is too soon as yet to determine
whether the increase may not be due to the effect of the Rules issued with Bengal
Government Resolution of August 1888, which no doubt operate in detaining a
larger proportion than heretofore of those lunatics who have apparently
recovered. This view is shared by the Superintendent of the Patna Asylum.
Further light will be thrown on this point by the details of new Criminal
Register No. 2, which has been brought into use from the beginning of 1893.
8. Statement III—Shows the religion, sex, and residence of those patients
admitted in the year. It does not call for comment.
9. Statement IV— Gives the occupation of patients admitted, and shows
that there is no special occupation tending to mental disease, but rather that the
poor of towns, suffering as they do the keenest competition for sustenance, is
the class from which a large percentage of those suffering from mental disease
is derived.
10. Statement V—Goes to show that mental disease most commonly
manifests itself between the ages of 20 and 40—a period in which the respon-
sibility of the individual suffers the greatest strain.
11. Statement VI.—The classification of patients suffering from mental
disease is beset with difficulties, not only on account of the complexity of the
symptoms, but because they vary in the same individual from time to time. It
would lead to no practically sound results to lay down any rule for guidance in
classification, and it is better to leave the question to the intelligence of officers
in charge of asylums. Dr. Walsh, the Superintendent of the Dullunda Asylum,
suggests that statement VI is a classification of "types" of insanity, and
column 7 differentiates the various supposed causes of toxic insanity ; but as
there is no type of mental disease properly designated as "toxic," it would be
better to divide column 7 into two heads—toxic mania and toxic melancholia—
bhang, opium, and spirit being the sub-heads of these two types. It is desirable
that reclassification of the types of all insanes remaining in the asylums at the
end of each year should be carried out.
12. Statement VII.—Of the total of 186 admissions, 53 are attributed to
Indian hemp, while only 10 are returned as due to Alcohol. Opium is said to
have been the cause of insanity in one instance only, and this is very doubtful.
It is needless to record that all these drugs are used by a not insignificant
proportion of the population of Bengal, and are all no doubt beneficial when
used in moderation. Heredity as the predisposing cause was noted in 15 cases.
Of the moral causes of mental derangement, grief was returned as by far
the most common influence, eight cases having been attributed to it.
13. Statement VIII.—Refers to the sickness and mortality of the year.
The following is a brief abstract of it :—
Remaining in hospital on the 1st January ...
Admitted ... ... ... ...
Total ...
Discharged ... ... ... ...
Died
...
...
...
...
Remaining on the 31st December ... ...
Percentage of sick to daily average strength ...
Percentage of deaths to
ditto ...
1891.
73
717
790
639
80
71
71.88
8.02
1892.
71
595
666
531
84
51
61.94
8.74
The total admissions indicate a less severe incidence of sickness in all the
asylums taken together. But there were more admissions to hospital at
Dullunda and Patna than in the previous year, while Dacca, Cuttack and Ber-
hampore return a more favourable record of health. At Dullunda the increase
is seen to be due to the occurrence of chicken-pox and to several cases of
pneumonia, no instance of either of these diseases having occurred in 1891.
Bowel-complaints were also more common in 1892. The increase of sickness
at Patna is attributed to fever and dysentery, and to disorders which these
diseases leave in their train. With the exception of six cases of small-pox in
the Dacca Asylum, there had been no special occurrence of serious disease