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conditions for and against the prevalence of sickness exist in both places alike, and still year
after year the death-rate in one is nominal, in the other immutably high. It may be that
the soil in one place is less receptive or retentive of the noxious matters which congregated
numbers of men impart to it; matters which, though they are regular products of human life,
are not removeable as excrement by conservancy. It is certain that on the site of the Presidency
Jail the natural water level is very far from the surface, and on that of the Asylum very near
to it; but the connexion between this distance and local healthiness has not yet been closely
traced, and, in the absence of data, it would perhaps be wiser to refrain from speculating on
evil agencies which do not admit of measurement or removal, as it can only lead to a high
death-rate being accepted as an incorrigible necessity; until at least every one of the
stereotyped conditions of health shall have been satisfied to the full.
In my report for 1860, I drew attention to the mischievous consequences of causing
lunatics to travel long distances to the Asylum, and I endeavoured to show, in a table prepared
for the purpose, that the death-rate was increased in a very high degree thereby. It was
pointed out by Dr. Green that the conclusion was weakened by the introduction of some cases
in which long residence in the Asylum had preceded death, and others were adduced in which
death took place after the lapse of some months. The latter class, I submit, were rightly
included, as I stated subsequently that two distinct causes were in operation, one the well-known
influence of the Calcutta climate on the health of the inland natives, the other the exhaustion
of the long journey; and to the former of these classes persons who lived only a few months
in the Asylum seemed rightly to belong. In paragraph 4 of the Government Resolution, dated
11th January, 1868, a desire is expressed for preparation of a table in which the period of
deaths in 1867 should be separately given, with a view to illustrating the question at issue.
I have accordingly drawn up a table, which, in addition to the specific information called for,
supplies, I think, every statistical fact connected with the deaths, and, with certain limitations,
will serve to separate the effects of the journey from those of changed climate.
The arguments and conclusions supported by this table, I will now submit as they present
themselves to me.
In the first place, the more closely the matter is examined, the more evident does it become
that, for the purpose of comparison, the cases received from Calcutta and the immediate
vicinity must be excluded. These cases form a large majority of the whole, and their exclusion
greatly narrows the field of enquiry. But it must be accepted, if fallacy is to be avoided, first,
because very many of the so-called Calcutta cases are not residents of Calcutta, or even of
Bengal, but natives of all provinces from Peshawur downwards, brought by all the variety of
circumstances that create the population of a port, and caught by the town police when they
have been made helpless or dangerous by the vices and poisons of the city; secondly, because
Calcutta people are sent at once to the Asylum, without reference to their physical state,
(provided they are not absolutely moribund.) Their insanity being established, the Asylum
is for them a more fitting place than the hospitals of the town. It is close at hand, and
their detention among the sick is not desirable. It follows that some are received in as hope-
less a state of physical health, as they are in the pauper hospital itself, and as a class they can
form no standard of comparison for lunatics from outlying districts, all of whom must be
pronounced fit to travel before they are moved, and who are to this extent picked-lives. There
remain only the smaller number of admissions from the nearer districts, to place by the side of
those from remote places; but the results, I think, are sufficiently marked to support some very
clear inferences.
If I use the figures from Calcutta then in the following arguments, it is with a view
of guarding myself from bias in favor of the conclusions put forth in my last report; for as there