LUNATIC ASYLUMS OF BENGAL.
9
1893 were 100.4 and 82.9 per cent. respectively, excluding venereal disease, and
the death-rates in the asylums of the other provinces
in India are given in the margin. I have been
unable to get later figures for European asylums
than those given last year. I say the year was
apparently more sickly, because I believe that the
increase in the number of admissions was in part, at least, due to personal
equation in the Superintendents as shown below.
At Dullunda there were 57 more admissions than in 1893; but 30 of
these were for mere debility without any definite disease, the Superintendent
remarking: " I prefer to keep cases of even ordinary debility in hospital."
Diseases of the respiratory organs show an increase of 21, of which
3 were pneumonia and 3 pleurisy, the rest being bronchitis.
Weather
conditions would probably account for this. Dysentery gave only 9 admis-
sions as compared with 22. Diarrhœa, fever, and tubercle were much the
same, and the general health was excellent. There were two cases of cholera,
the first in a gardener who had been 25 years in the asylum. He drank water
from a tank supplied from Tolly's Nullah. The second case is reported to have
drunk water from a tub, the water of which had been used to wash the night
pan used for the former case. This should not have been possible, and the
Superintendent has been directed to take such additional precautions as
shall make its recurrence impossible. There was no other epidemic disease.
Dacca had 155 admissions against 244 in 1893—a decrease of 36.47 per cent.
There were, however, 87 admissions from influenza in 1893 against none in 1894.
Fever caused 59 admissions in 1893, only 40 in 1894. Debility and tubercle of
lung increased from 5 and 1 to 16 and 15 respectively; but 5 of the latter had
tubercle on admission. There was a marked decrease in bowel-complaints,
fever, and chest affections, and no epidemic disease.
Patna had 11 admissions more than in 1893. Bowel-complaints were more
numerous; fever cases less than in 1893. The Superintendent states that he
noticed that bowel-complaints were more numerous than usual, both in the
jail and among the general population.
Cuttack has such a small population that comparisons are very fallacious.
The Superintendent reports that " the health was about on a par with the
previous year." Yet the admission rate went up nearly 200 per cent., being
11 against 4. One man died of abscess. There was no epidemic.
Berhampore had 142 admissions against 97 in 1893; but 32 of these were
due to influenza, which did not figure in the returns of 1893, and fever was
somewhat more prevalent. Most of the cases treated are noted to have been
" very slight. "
14. The following tables show the chief causes of sickness and mortality
in the towns and jails in or near which the asylums are situated:—
Madras ...
Bombay...
Panjab...
N - W. Provinces ...
Burma ...
11.69
10.8
9.18
5.13
16.88
TABLE VIII.
Showing the Mortality among the general Population.
NAMES OF
LOCALITIES.
1
Calcutta
...
...
Dacca
...
...
Patna
...
...
Cuttack
...
...
Berhampore ...
Popula-
tion.
2
681,560
82,321
165,192
47,186
23,515
Fever.
1893.
3
8,091
1,038
2,528
303
577
1894.
4
8,963
1,115
3,220
671
474
Bowel-complaints.
1893.
5
2,882
247
674
140
16
1894.
6
3,136
324
1,062
245
23
Cholera.
1893.
7
869
581
457
171
149
1894.
8
1,695
152
316
133
65
Total deaths for
all causes.
1893.
9
20,113
2,554
5,231
941
798
1894.
10
22,441
2,342
6,236
1,403
651
Ratio per 1,000 of
population.
1893.
11
29.51
31.02
31.66
19.94
33.93
1894.
12
32.92
28.44
37.75
29.73
27.68
B