( 2 )
5. The accommodation available was sufficient in all the asylums, except
that at Dullunda both the male and female wards were for a time slightly
overcrowded, but on this being reported 34 males and 4 females were at once
transferred to other asylums. The five asylums can accommodate 1,137 patients,
allowing 50 square feet for each, but the number confined in any one night
did not exceed 992.
6. Of the 201 admissions, 126 are classified under mania, 45 under melan-
cholia, 7 under idiocy, and the remainder under various other types. Sixty-four
are attributed to physical causes, 15 to moral causes, and in 122 cases the
causes were unknown. Of the 64 cases attributed to physical causes, 25 are
ascribed to ganja-smoking, 3 to spirit-drinking, 20 to heredity, 2 to fever, 6 to
epilepsy, 1 to bhang, and 7 to other causes. There were 5 more ganja cases
than in the preceding year, 9 being reported from Dullunda, 7 from Patna, 4
from Cuttack, 3 from Berhampore, and 2 from Dacca. A careful diagnosis
was made in every instance. In most of the Dullunda cases, however, it is said
that the patients were also addicted to opium or alcohol, so that ganja was not
the sole cause of their insanity.
7. The number of admissions to hospital fell from 898 to 667, but there
was again a considerable increase in the average daily number of sick, which
rose from 84.64 to 128.57. The rise in the daily number of sick at Dullunda
is ascribed by the Superintendent to the fact that a comparatively larger
proportion of the lunatics admitted there were of an advanced age, and that
the great majority of them were admitted in exceptionally bad health, due
probably to the effects of the famine. The maintenance at Dullunda and the
formation at Dacca of an " infirm gang," the members of which received
special care and treatment without being sent to hospital, seems to account for
the small number of admissions to hospital at those two asylums. The present
Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals will be asked to consider whether this
system, which his predecessor considered open to objection, should be main-
tained. It is satisfactory to notice that there was no cholera in any of the
asylums, although several cases occurred in the neighbouring jails. The number
of deaths amounted to 90, the same high figure as in the previous year.
The
death-rate, 9.70, was lower than that shown for the year 1896 by Bombay,
but higher than that of Madras, the Punjab, North-Western Provinces, and
Burma for the same year.
The Lieutenant-Governor is glad to see that a variety of much appreciated
amusements was provided in all the asylums.
8. The number of injuries and accidents was 14 against 16 in 1896 and
were mostly of an unimportant character.
At Dacca, however, a lunatic
committed suicide by hanging himself from the gratings of the cell. A judicial
enquiry was held and one of the warders found to have been guilty of negli-
gence : he was, however, only reduced to a lower grade, as the evidence did not
warrant a criminal prosecution. At Patna a lunatic was found with several
ribs broken: a jemadar was reduced and a warder fined, but a special enquiry
by the Magistrate failed to elicit what had happened. It is supposed he had
been kicked by another lunatic. No escape took place from any of the asylums
during the year.
9. The income and expenditure of the asylums for the past two years are
shown below:—
INCOME.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Received from treasury ...
Ditto from paying patients ...
Total ...
Received from manufacturing de-
partment, less cost of raw mate-
rials ... ...
Received from the Public Works
Department, Medical Store
Depôt and Stationery Office ...
GRAND TOTAL ...
1896.
Rs.
83,349
2,150
85,500
4,066
4,389
93,955
A.
11
12
7
0
5
13
P.
0
10
10
7
6
11
1897.
Rs.
90,341
2,472
92,814
4,587
12,432
1,09,834
A.
8
12
5
1
12
2
P.
8
6
2
3
4
9