LUNATIC ASYLUMS OF BENGAL.
17
his annual report. The visitors, however, with one exception, viz., the
Magistrate of 24-Parganas, did not approve of the system, and consequently it
has been discontinued. I shall be glad to consider any other method, equally
inexpensive and efficient, which the visitors may recommend, to suit a native
asylum, as I consider it highly prejudicial to the health of the lunatics to allow
them to lie on the hard, damp, asphalt floors, breathing at night offensive odours
given off by their excretæ, which the dry earth, when it was properly used,
deodorised.
Attention has also lately been drawn by Surgeon-Colonel Hutcheson to
the unsuitability of certain kinds of labour exacted from the insane in the
Bengal Asylums, and I entirely agree with the views expressed by him. He
states that "it seems necessary to condemn in the strongest possible terms the
kind of penal labour, as most prejudicial to health, exacted from the insane,
and no amount of labour of another kind can be more pernicious to those
affected with mental disease than the daily trudge round the oil-mill within a
circle of 9 feet in diameter. The exaction of such labour must often result in
serious consequences to those afflicted with active cerebral disease; the proce-
dure is a point pressing for immediate reform in asylum management, and all
such forms of labour in asylums should be forthwith interdicted."
The Deputy Superintendent of this asylum was changed, as there was
laxity in certain matters.
The Dacca Asylum was inspected by me on the 16th August. The build-
ings, which are very old, are more or less unsuitable. The garden was good ;
the asylum was particularly clean. The hospital was good, 6 inches of dry earth
being spread on the floor, each patient having a wooden takhtaposh with a piece
of tat and blankets to sleep on.
I visited the Patna Asylum on the 16th July. The buildings are old and
unserviceable, the ventilation being insufficient for the hot weather. I recom-
mended the use of dry earth on the floors of the wards as a distinct organic
animal smell existed. This has been carried out. Great attention was paid to
the sick, and all the inmates were well cared for.
The Berhampore Asylum was visited on the 27th November. The build-
ings were in good repair, but the new extension, I was informed, could not be
used for want of extra guards. Agreeably to the orders of Government the pay
of the extra establishment required by the Superintendent has been provided in
the Medical Budget for 1896-97. The duty of inspection was difficult and
unpleasant owing to a large number of lunatics being massed together. The
asylum was clean, but the personal cleanliness of the inmates was not satisfac-
tory. I pointed out the directions in which improvements might be effected.
Except in the hospital, the lunatics sleep on the bare ground, which is not a
humane arrangement, and tends to cause dysentery.
The Cuttack Asylum was visited on the 27th December. It was clean, and
the inmates, the number of whom was small, seemed well cared for. There
was some deficiency in their clothing and bedding, to which I drew the
attention of the Superintendent.
I would remark that the asylums were generally as well managed by the
Superintendents as exissing circumstances probably admit of.
39. I recently drew the attention of the Superintendents to the judicious
employment of lunatics on manufactures, and it is hoped that greater
attention will be paid to the subject in future. A copy of the note by the
Surgeon-General with the Government of India on the annual reports on
lunatic asylums for 1894 has also been sent to the Superintendents for their
information.
40. The question of the formation of a central asylum for lunatics in
Bengal is under the consideration of Government. In my opinion it will be
greatly to the advantage of the insanes to have a central asylum superintended
by a medical officer who will devote the whole of his time to this work, and I
fully endorse the opinion of Surgeon-Colonel Hutcheson, who says: — " A lunatic
asylum should be in no sense a jail. The main object of the confinement of the
insane is the classification and careful treatment of the individual according to
his or her mental defect or aberration and pronounced habits, and this can only
be accomplished by the systematic study of each case by an expert staff with a
f