REPORT ON THE DACCA LUNATIC ASYLUM.
BY SURGEON JAMES WISE, M.D., SUPERINTENDENT.
THE new forms of annual returns were only received on the 18th ultimo, which accounts
for the unusual delay in forwarding these papers.
Comparison
of
1871 with previ-
ous years.
Cause of decrease
of re-admissions.
2. Table 1 is an abstract of the annual return of 1871 and of the ten previous years.
The details from 1861 to 1865 are not reliable, and cannot therefore be compared with those
of subsequent years. The admissions during the past year have been below the average, but
the total number is one more than in 1870. In the column of re-admissions there is a striking
difference between the first five years and the last six. Of 160 persons re-admitted, 113 fall
within the former period, and only 47 in the latter. The frequency with which individuals
addicted to ganjah sought re-admission after recovery was so obvious, that the Superin-
tendents have of late years detained under more lengthened observation all habitual smokers
of ganjah in the hope that a longer residence in the asylum would tend to make them break
off their dissolute habits. I believe that the reduction in the re-admissions of late years is
due to this practice. It is to this cause, and to the fact that prior to 1867 all escapes were
returned as cures, that the smaller number of cures recorded of late years is undoubtedly to
be referred.
There is a discrepancy between the numbers remaining at the end of one year with
those at the beginning of the next, but the figures have been carefully copied from the
annual printed returns. Since 1866 the figures are perfectly correct. No separate registers
of male and female inmates were kept until 1864.
Ratios of events to
population.
Events reckoned on
admissions.
* Not printed ; see Statement No. 14.
3. Table No. 2* is the ratio per cent. of strength and treated of the events of 1871 and
the ten preceding years. This table, like the previous one, is
vitiated by the irregularities in the registers of former
years. The figures of the last six years are accurate, and one year may be compared with
any other. Taking the three first lines, the average admissions per cent. of total admissions
for these six years was 40.05, of discharges and deaths 42.77, and of discharges 24.42.
With these averages the events of 1871 are comparable.
Cures.
Deaths.
In this table the most important columns are those showing the ratios of cures to total
number treated, and of deaths to total admissions. Taking from 1866 to 1870, the ratios of
cures averaged 12.39, while in 1871 it was only 10. The only explanation of the falling
off are the circumstances referred to under table 1. Of the deaths to admissions, details will
be given hereafter, but it is noteworthy here that, while from 1866—70 the ratio was only
46.92, it rose in 1871 to 52.50.
Criminal lunatics:
particulars.
† See General Statement No. 3.
Table 3† is a return of criminal lunatics resident in the asylum during 1871. On the
1st January 47 of this class were in the asylum, 15 were
admitted during the year, 7 were discharged or transferred
to stand their trial, 7 died, 1 female, who had been six times previously in the asylum as
a non-criminal lunatic, was re-admitted as a criminal; and on the 31st December 38 males
and 11 females remained.
Events
shown
month by month.
Table 4 is a summary of the monthly returns of 1871. As usual, the largest number
resident was during the rains. It is also during that season that the admissions are most
numerous. This is due to the facility of transporting lunatics when the rivers are full, and
not to any connection between insanity and a damp, hot atmosphere.