REPORT ON THE BHOWANIPORE LUNATIC ASYLUM
FOR THE YEAR 1871.
BY SURGEON-MAJOR A. J. PAYNE, M.D., SUPERINTENDENT.
Admissions.
Transmission
to
Europe of insane
soldiers.
THE admissions, 65 in number against 53 in 1870, show a small increase, which seems
to be only in course of ordinary fluctuation. The military admissions numbered 31
against 32 in the preceding year, from which it is clear that the proposed method of
despatching soldiers to the Upper Provinces direct to Bombay with other invalids has not yet
been adopted. The method of despatch by the several invalid ships of the season has been
commenced, and has up to the present time worked without inconvenience. It is to be
feared, however, that as insane soldiers continue to arrive from the provinces late in the season,
and the military authorities at Bombay make very small allotments to the successive ships,
some men will remain to be sent home by long sea voyage at a heavy cost with the civil
lunatics of the year. This would be avoided if the men were sent direct to Bombay from
their regiments, and as the vessels sail once at least in each month, there need be no
accumulation in the Bombay asylum.
Causation.
Causation is, as usual, very unsatisfactorily noted among the admissions. Antecedent
information is commonly difficult to procure. Intemperance is an assigned cause in 9
cases, but with one or two exceptions I doubt whether it can be regarded as in any sense a true
cause in this number. Hereditary transmission has been affirmed in 1 case only. There
have been 6 cases of epilepsy, all males. Cranial injury is held accountable for 1,
sunstroke for 2, excessive study for 2, domestic trouble for 1, and childbirth and fever each
for one only.
Types of mental
disease.
Varieties.—There have been 6 cases of acute and 42 of chronic mania, the latter term
being alone applicable to the condition in which the majority of soldiers reach the
asylum, who have either passed through an acute stage before leaving their regiments, or
are suffering from recurrence of long standing insanity. 30 cases of chronic dementia
have been received, some of them consecutive no doubt on more active insanity, others con-
sisting of little more than congenital stupidity, incapacitating a man for duty. There is
I suppose no other way of discharging soldiers who from their enlistment show this kind
of mental deficiency, and as a means of getting rid of them from the service, it is now as
simple and economical as the process of ordinary invaliding, but their presence in the asylum
is one of the several causes which I have occasionally brought to the Inspector-General's
notice as vitiating the asylum records for all purposes of statistical comparison.
Sickness and mor-
tality.
Sickness and mortality.—There have been very little illness in the place,—none worth
mentioning indeed; the three deaths as shown in the special returns having been from
causes arising before admission. Two of the patients were received in a state of great
prostration, and one had broken his neck on the railway journey down country.
Finances.
Money Receipts and Expenditure.—A large sum has been realized and paid into the
treasury on account of paying patients—nearly Rs. 9,000, excluding stoppages from soldiers'
pay, of which I receive no account, but which should nevertheless be credited under this
head. No less than Rs. 5,325 has been paid in by the estate of Mr. Nicholas Kallonas as a
result of legal proceedings taken by me formerly. The estate is still in debt to the asylum,
but the Collector of Backergunge is not unmindful of the claim, and I hope soon to see further
payments made.
The average monthly cost of diet per man has been Rs. 19-15-4.