8
LUNATIC ASYLUMS OF BENGAL.
By Bengal Government No. 443Med., dated 20th February 1892, it was
suggested that the new Criminal Register No. II should be published with the
annual report, but as this would involve very many pages of a 23-column
return, giving the detailed history of every criminal lunatic in Bengal, and would
materially delay the report, while the figures above given show all that is
required to be known, this is considered unnecessary.
8. Statement III, showing the religion, sex and residence of those admit-
ted during the year, calls for no comment.
9. Statement IV shows the previous occupations of the new admissions,
the bulk of whom, as is natural, come from the labouring classes, though there
is a considerable sprinkling of educated persons, clerks, teachers, students, &c.
10. Statement V, which gives the ages, teaches the same lesson as in
previous years, viz., that the time of greatest liability to mental derangement
is during the more active period of life from 20 to 40, rapidly decreasing after
40, and being very rare indeed after 60.
11. Statement VI.—Types of insanity.—Mania,
as usual, heads the list
(84 admissions), because, being much more violent and dangerous than other
insane persons, maniacs are much more freely admitted than cases of melan-
cholia (27), dementia (21), or idiocy (4). Of 36 cases classed as toxic insanity,
32 are ascribed to hemp (30 to ganja and 2 to bhang) and 4 to alcohol. Five
cases were due to epilepsy, one to injury, one to visceral inflammation,
one to a cause not diagnosed, the remaining 25 being pronounced not
insane.
12. Statement VII.—Alleged causes.—Fifty-five cases were attributed to
ganja, only one to bhang, one to opium-smoking, none to opium-eating, six to
alcohol, ten to heredity, four to epilepsy, fourteen to other physical causes, while
twenty-two were put down to moral causes, of which grief and anxiety were the
chief.
The suggestion in last year's Resolution "that it is as reasonable to
suppose that excessive ganja-smoking may be due to insanity as that insanity
may be due to excessive use of ganja " was referred to Superintendents of Asylums
for report. With one exception, they were of opinion, in which Surgeon-Colonel
Pilcher concurred, that " there is no evidence of a species of insanity tending to
the use of ganja.'' With this opinion I cannot agree, for though direct evidence
may be wanting in the case of ganja, there is ample evidence known to every
physician that in dipsomania the insanity often precedes and causes the excess in
alcohol, by which it is again aggravated and intensified. Men of high mental
culture, born with the damnosa hereditas of a tendency to drink, afford frequent
examples. They know their danger, struggle against temptation, and sometimes
conquer it. Too often, however, the time comes when the craving is too strong,
the will gives way, and a debauch ends in insanity or delirium tremens. The
attack passes off, is frequently followed by a long interval of complete sobriety
and perfect health, but the general tendency is for the attacks to recur at shorter
and shorter intervals. I see no reason why what is true of alcohol should not
be equally true of any other intoxicant, and the Superintendent of Berhampore
considers it merely a question of race and custom. The weakness of will is the
disease; the excess, whether of alcohol, ganja or opium, a mere symptom. There
can be no doubt that in past years many cases have been attributed to ganja
on most insufficient evidence. "The Magistrate," says the Superintendent of
the Patna Asylum, "forwards a descriptive roll filled in by the police who
investigate the case, and in those cases in which it is stated that the
lunatic is a ganja-smoker it is commonly assumed that ganja is the cause of
insanity." At the same time all the Superintendents agree that there are many
cases in which, beyond all doubt, excess in ganja is the primary cause of insanity.
Further observations are unnecessary, since the whole question of the effect of
hemp as a factor in causing mental aberration is now under investigation by
a Special Commission, whose report may be expected to throw much light on a
very obscure subject.