42
REPORT ON THE
is a necessity, and for the asylum use eight cows have been purchased this year. The milk
cost Government nothing, and the feed of the cows is defrayed from the manufacturing fund.
Chest diseases.
Pulmonary affections, excluding phthisis pulmonalis, have been less frequent than usual.
Like dysentery, pneumonia is a very common sequel of other complaints. Along with fevers
of the cold season it is especially liable to occur.
Of the remaining diseases there is nothing deserving of mention.
Confinement and
restraint.
* Omitted.
Table No. 15.* There are no solitary cells in the usual acceptation of the term in the
asylum, but there are cells for single patients. No lunatic
is ever locked up for twenty-four hours consecutively.
Patients in the acute stage of mania, and lunatics who have exhibited dangerous tendencies,
are confined in these cells, but they are taken out morning and evening for exercise in charge
of keepers. Their meals are also taken outside.
Lunatics who are mischievous or quarrelsome, or who attempt to escape, are punished by
being confined in one of these cells. Their tobacco is stopped while undergoing this punish-
ment. No lunatic is ever confined without my order.
No mechanical restraint is ever used, and I find by the records that the use of such coercive
means was entirely abolished in 1853.
Vaccination.
† Omitted.
Table No. 16†. All lunatics, if they have not been already protected, are vaccinated on
admission. A vaccinator attends every Sunday morning.
I cannot determine from his register how many were
operated on during 1871, but the number was small, as the majority of those admitted
had been inoculated.
Of 35 males remaining in the asylum out of the 80 admitted, 18 were inoculated
before arrival, 5 had marks of natural small-pox, and 12 were unprotected.
Of 6 females, 3 had been inoculated, 3 were unprotected.
Employment.
Table No. 17 is a statement showing the average number of inmates daily employed
during the year.
The average strength of the males was 170.02, of this number 137.25 were usefully
employed.
The average strength of the females was 42.38, and 34.37 were daily at work. There were
only on an average 6.5 of intractable and idle inmates. The remainder were in hospital.
Gardening.
The garden employs the largest number of workmen, and all patients discharged from
hospital spend a week or two at light work in the open air.
Soorkey pounding.
Castor-oil press-
ing.
Soorkey pounding has engaged sixteen men daily. The brick procured from the pulling
down of old walls has provided sufficient material during the year. Castor-oil pressing
has not proved as remunerative as was expected. The seeds are imported from Patna, as
the local supply is dear and scanty.
Difficulty of pro-
viding suitable
work.
It is very difficult to provide lunatics with a work fitted to their peculiarities, and which
will repay the outlay. In Dacca there is a constant demand for soorkey and mustard oil,
and it is consequently from their manufacture that the largest profit is obtained. The other
manufactures do little more than cover the expenditure.
Expenditure.
Table No. 18 shows the annual expenditure incurred on account of the asylum
during 1871.
Cost of each pa-
tient.
Paying patients.
In former years the salary of the Superintendent was included in that of establishment,
as it appears to me ought to be done; but as no other asylum does so, and as the average
cost per man in the Dacca Asylum is compared without explanation in the annual report
of the Inspector-General, that item has been omitted this year. The average cost of each
man in 1871 was Rs. 86-1-4. In 1870, after making a similar deduction, the cost was
Rs. 87-14-1. The cost of dieting was at the rate of Rs. 48-13-9 a year, or 2 annas
1½ pie per diem, the same as it was in 1870 ; only Rs. 375-4 have been received from
the relatives of insane persons sent to the asylum. I do not find that anything has ever