PATNA ASYLUM.
35
THE forwarding report of Deputy Inspector-Greneral H. M. MACPHERSON is appended :—
I INSPECTED the Patna Lunatic Asylum on the afternoon of the 8th January 1870, in
company with the superintendent, Dr. J. Bedford Allen. The only alteration made in the
buildings during the past year has been the erection of a new latrine on a good principle,
and of a large new shed well raised from the ground. It is used for the insanes to work in,
and a few might sleep there in the event of the main ward building being overcrowded
in the hot weather. Although the change made a year ago in the level of the drains
happily prevented the asylum compound from being flooded when the river and nullahs
rose to an unwonted height in the month of October, still the floors and lower two or three feet
of the walls of the cells in the main ward became so damp, that it was deemed unsafe to
allow the inmates to occupy them. Dr. Allen therefore caused a machan two feet high to
be erected of bamboos all along one verandah. It is covered with thick straw mats, which
are exposed to the sun throughout the day, and on these the insanes sleep comfortably.
Even at the date of my visit, the cells were not sufficiently dry to make it safe to occupy
them. A few only who have a tendency to wander about at night have always been shut
up in a small number of cells in an adjoining division of the building, which was ordered
to be pulled down eighteen months ago, but owing to some delay in the Public Works
Department has never yet been removed. The number of persons confined in the asylum
on the day of my visit was 162,—the same as a year ago. Of the 162, 95 were males and
38 females ; besides, 27 male criminals and 2 female criminals. A good many of the insanes
of both sexes were employed in digging and carrying earth to raise the level of the ground
of the asylum generally. The tank of the asylum garden was greatly enlarged and
deepened, partly by the insanes and partly as a famine work, during last hot weather ;
and it is the earth thus excavated which is being used for the benefit of the asylum gener-
ally, as just described. There was hardly one insane not employed usefully in some way
or other. The only objection to the new latrine is that its floor is rather low and damp,
though dry-earth conservancy is well carried out. The ridge pole, too, has unfortunately
cracked, and Dr. Allen proposes to unroof the building and raise both the floor and the
walls before it is covered in again.
All the wards were very clean and well ventilated,—the women's ward, perhaps, in
particular, and the garden and grounds generally were in good order.
The hospital contains 10 beds, made of mud and leeped, and 18 inches high, and all
the beds were occupied on the 8th January, there being one case of paralysis, one of a burn, and
the remaining patients being under treatment for fever or bowel complaints. While the
number of inmates has been much the same as in 1868, the mortality was much higher in
1869, as many as 15 men and 8 women having succumbed. No doubt lunatics suffered from the
general scarcity prevailing all over Behar ; and Dr. Allen stated that as many as 13 were
admitted in a very feeble state, and died within two months of their coming into the asylum.
There were two sudden deaths : one man fell into a well, and one died from the effects of having
several ribs broken by some party or parties unknown, as reported to the Inspector-General
at the time.
The system of having bi-monthly nautches for the amusement of the insanes, which was
introduced by Dr. Hutchinson, has been continued by Dr. Allen, and, in his opinion, with
good results. The insanes who are quiet and can be trusted are also still allowed to take
a walk outside the walls of the asylum every morning, attended by keepers.
The food and clothing of the insanes appeared to be of good quality and sufficient. Dr.
Allen keeps at his own house all medicines excepting such as are required for immediate use.
The institution was most unfortunate in the European overseer appointed during the
early part of the year, on the transfer of Mr. Frawley to Moydapore. From a period shortly