No. 346.
FROM J. CAMPBELL BROWN, ESQ., C.B.,
Inspector-General of Hospitals,
Indian Medical Department,
To THE OFFG. SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF BENGAL.
Dated Fort William, the 27th June 1872.
SIR,
I HAVE the honor to submit the reports and returns of the lunatic asylums of
Bengal for the year 1871.
Revision of forms
of returns.
2. In accordance with several suggestions which I found it necessary to make in my
last report, regarding the improvement of the forms of statistical returns submitted by the
officers in charge of lunatic asylums, I caused the forms hitherto in use to be very carefully
revised, with a view to rendering them more complete and comprehensive. After consulting
Drs. Payne and Wise as to their fitness, the revised forms were issued for future adoption
in the form of a circular, which I place as an appendix to this report, and the statistics of
1871 have been drawn up in accordance with this scheme. The preparation of some of
these forms has caused a little trouble and led to some delay, but they will be better under-
stood in future and prepared more easily and promptly. The same scheme of returns has
been adopted in all the other asylums of this presidency, and is now under the consideration
of the Government of India in the Home Department, with a view to its adoption in all
the lunatic asylums of India. These forms meet all the imperfections and omissions which
I pointed out in last year's report; they certainly appear to be numerous and elaborate, but
it is most desirable to register fully and accurately all the circumstances connected with so
very important and interesting a subject as lunacy, and the difficulty and labour involved in
their preparation is due more to the calculations necessary for the purpose of comparing
one institution with another, and the year under report with its predecessors, than to any
complexity in the facts which are noted in each table. The written reports of Superintendents
show that the preparation of, and comment upon, these tables cause them to institute a most
searching study of the events of the year, and the sequel of this report will demonstrate that
under the system now initiated data of great interest will be systematically noted. In accord-
ance with the alterations in the returns of each institution, it has become necessary to alter
the general statements which have been employed to illustrate this general report. These
changes have been made as slight as possible, and the general tables of this year will bear
a comparison with those of previous reports, their order and form being preserved as nearly
as possible the same. I have not considered it necessary to append to the report of each
asylum the whole series of forms prescribed by the circular, and have omitted those whose
contents are exhibited in the summary tables illustrating this report, supplying a reference to
these, and giving in extenso those only whose facts are not exhibited in the general report.
Summary of the
statistics of all
asylums.
3. Statement No. 1 exhibits the principal events of 1871 in each asylum, and a sum-
mary of these for all the asylums of the province, the statistics of the sexes being shown
separately. It corresponds with tabular form No. 1 of the circular, in which the events
of the year under report are placed in series with those of former years : table No. 2 of the
circular furnishing a reduction of these to certain arithmetical ratios for the sake of com-
parison. These tables have been printed this year, but it will not be necessary to reproduce
similar tables every year, and the abstracts attached to the remarks on each asylum give
the main facts of former years in relation to the strength of the inmates, and exhibit a
comparison, sufficiently detailed for practical purposes, between different institutions and
different years. Table No. 3 of the circular, which notes the same events monthly, is also
annexed to each report.