BHOWANIPORE ASYLUM.
55
should be allowed to proceed to Madras, where he had been promised employment, and
whither he considered himself bound when he was ordered to the asylum.
Cures and transfers.—Fourteen patients were discharged cured during the year, and
five recovered so far as to admit of their transfer to the care of friends. Nineteen were des-
patched to Europe as ordinary invalids through the Military Department, and fifteen
received passage as lunatics. This year, as before, I am unable to state positively the result
of removal from the climate of India—the most powerful, and in many cases the only
means of cure.
Towards the end of the year I became aware of a change in the manner of despatch-
ing military invalids and time-expired men to Europe which would affect the proceedings
adopted with quiet lunatics. Hitherto these men have been sent from inland stations to
Calcutta to embark, and in the ships which have carried them, harmless lunatics have since
1862 been sent at a very large saving of money. This year invalid soldiers have proceeded
viâ Bombay, with the exception only of a very few from the Presidency division; but a
few lunatics have come as before to Calcutta, consequently one invalid ship only has been
chartered. On learning the change I lost no time in bringing to the notice of the authorities
the great expense which must be incurred in providing for the lunatics of the season in
special ships, unless the rule which limits the proportion of harmless cases in invalid ships
were suspended, or arrangements made for conveying the men by rail to Bombay. The
difficulty has for the present year been in a great measure overcome with the assistance of
the British and Indian Medical Departments by the suspension of the rule, and all who were
pronounced fit were allowed to embark in the single ship. It happened fortunately that this
vessel carried also a number of military prisoners and a strong guard with them, so that the
lunatics were not dependent entirely for care on the small party of invalids and others who
accompanied them. For the future I have recommended (vide my letter to your address,
No. 205, dated 12th December 1869) that all insane soldiers of regiments transmitting
invalids viâ Bombay should accompany the invalids by that route, that the great pecuniary
advantage of carrying them in invalid ships might not be lost, nor the men subjected to a
needlessly circuitous route. The grounds of this proposal were fully set forth in my letter,
and as it met with your approval, and, I understand, also that of the heads of both Medical
Departments, I conclude it is now before the Government.
Mortality.—Two persons died in the asylum during the year: one from old age, the
other from the exhaustion of continued maniacal excitement with convulsive seizures.
Buildings, &c.—The state of the buildings of the asylum has been fully reported from
time to time in the Department of Public Works, and plans for their reconstruction have been
considered. Financial reasons have prevented any material improvement for the present, but
such repairs have been executed as were necessary for safety. The plan now proposed of
transmitting insane soldiers to Bombay will, if carried out, greatly reduce the admissions to
this asylum, and so obviate the necessity for extensions of any magnitude.
Money receipts and expenditure.—The receipts on account of paying-patients have reached
the sum of Rs. 3,646-1-10, against Rs. 2,676 in 1868. The case of Government against the
estate of Mr. N. Kallonas, a lunatic zemindar, has been mentioned in former reports. As a
first instalment of the money due for his maintenance in the asylum, a sum of Rs. 800 has
been received from the Collector of Backergunge after some tedious litigation. The other
outstanding debts at the close of the year amounted to Rs. 1,000. All endeavours to realize
some portions of this have failed, and it will be necessary to apply for sanction, as in former
cases, to write off the items as irrecoverable. Rs. 1,050 have to be credited on account of
deductions from soldiers' pay. It has been necessary during the year to draw the attention
of magisterial officers transmitting private lunatics to the asylum to the rule which requires
them to ascertain and certify the means of such persons or their responsible relatives to pay