60
REPORT ON THE
Particulars re¬
garding discharge
of criminal lunatics.
Of the nine who were discharged, one was delivered over to his sons by order of Govern-
ment after a residence of 20 years; one was removed to the Presidency jail at the special
request of the visitors; five were transferred to stand their trial, of whom only one has been
sent back; one was sentenced to a short period of imprisonment in jail, where he became
insane, and after the expiry of his term of imprisonment he was discharged cured; and one
escaped.
Events
shown
according to sea¬
son.
6. Table No. 4 is a summary of the monthly returns; the largest average number
resident was, as usual, between July and October. The greatest number of admissions was
during the rainy months; of discharges and deaths, during the cold months.
The two lunatics who escaped are included among those discharged.
Sickness.
There is a great reduction in the daily average number of sick, as compared with former
years, although the practice of keeping all weakly and demented lunatics under charge of
the native doctor is continued.
Difficulty in ac¬
counting for in-
crease of admis¬
sions in 1872.
7. It is difficult to explain why there was such an increase of madness during 1872.
The epidemic of dengue fever had its influence; but a marked rise in the numbers sent
from zillahs, where that disease was unknown, is also apparent from the records.
Overcrowding.
In October the crowding of the wards was so great, that I addressed the Magistrate of
Dacca and requested him only to send such lunatics as were dangerous, or had no one to look
after them, to the asylum. This has been the rule ever since, yet the numbers resident have
not materially lessened.
Districts
from
which lunatics were
brought.
8. No. 5 shows the religion and zillahs of lunatics admitted during 1872.
This asylum receives lunatics from a population, according to the late census, of 10,926,464
adults.
Remarkably
large number of
lunatics admitted
from Sylhet.
9. The most striking fact in this table is the great number of lunatics received from
Sylhet. With the exception of the zillah of Dacca, from which, for obvious reasons, most
lunatics come, zillah Sylhet has always been notorious for the prevalence of insanity. There
have been sent 24 insane adults this year from a population of 1,079,472; while the Assam
Division, with a population considerably higher, furnishes 15 ; and Mymensing and Backer-
gunge, each with inhabitants a quarter of a million more numerous than Sylhet, sent only
seven and four respectively.
The number of
lunatics sent by
different districts
may depend on the
orders issued to the
police.
10. It is possible that the apparent prevalence of insanity in one district as compared
with another may merely depend on the instructions given to the police. If a Magistrate
insists on all homeless lunatics being sent into the sudder station, the proportion of lunatics
from that particular district will exceed those from an adjoining district where such an order
is not enacted.
Peculiarities in
the assigned causes
of madness
in
Sylhet lunatics.
11. Comparing the causes of the insanity among the lunatics from Sylhet with those from
the Assam Division, the following interesting facts are elicited. Of 36 cases from Sylhet of
late years in which a cause has been assigned, seven, or a fifth, have the insanity traced to
hereditary predisposition, while of 47 cases from Assam this cause is not assigned in a single
instance. Again, in 12 cases, or one-third of the whole, from Sylhet, the mental affection is
referred to fever, debilitating diseases, or epilepsy, while in Assam, in as many as eight, or a
sixth of the whole number, the madness followed epilepsy, and in five, fever or other disease.
12. It is not, as at first might be assumed, from the tea coolie population that so many
mad people come.