APPENDIX.
137
No. 125, dated Fort William, the 3rd May 1872.
From—J. C. BROWN, ESQ., C.B., Inspector-General of Hospitals, Indian
Medical Department,
To—The Offg. Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Judicial Department.
WITH
reference to Bengal Government's resolution dated 14th December 1871,
paragraph 5, I have the honor to submit the report of the committee which has recently had
under consideration sundry matters regarding the administration of the Native Lunatic
Asylum at Dullunda, more particularly as concerns the system of accounts and the manage-
ment of the so-called industrial funds.
2. The recommendations of the committee may be thus summarily represented—
(a) That all money received be paid into, and all money expended be drawn from,
the treasury.
(b) That all money received and disbursed be entered in a cash-book, which will be
daily balanced and signed by the superintendent.
(c) That a stock-book shall be kept, in which every article in stock shall be
separately entered, and which should be balanced monthly.
(d) That all fines be deducted from the monthly salary bills before they are cashed.
(e) That expenditure hitherto incurred on account of the industrial fund shall be
budgeted for yearly, and that within the limits of this budget the superin-
tendent shall have a discretionary power of incurring outlay up to Rs. 200
for any article, except raw materials, whose purchase is only limited by the
budget assignment.
(f) That the pay bills for fixed establishment be presented direct to the treasury, the
money being drawn on the superintendent's signature.
(g) That the services of a good accountant be entertained.
(h) That dieting be strictly regulated by diet scales, which have been drawn up by
the medical members.
(i) That all articles of supply required by the asylum, with the exception of raw
materials for manufacture, the manner of whose provision shall be left to the
discretion of the superintendent, shall be obtained by public contract.
A form of cash-book, detailed rules for accounting for stock, and diet scales and diet
roll forms, are appended to the committee's report.
3. These recommendations appear to me unobjectionable, and seem to meet all the
defects which have been pointed out in the system of asylum accounts.
There will, if they are sanctioned, be in future one debit and one credit account for the
asylum, and its financial position will be plain and easy of study. Hitherto it has been
utterly impossible to say what this public institution has actually cost; henceforth a very
simple arithmetical calculation will show this. The industrial system which Dr. Payne has
so ably developed, and for whose development he deserves infinite credit, is part and parce
of the business of an institution of this kind, and a cardinal element in the treatment of the
insane. It would be equally incumbent on the State to provide employment which experience
has taught us is so powerful and efficient an agent of restoring disturbed reason for lunatics,
were no profit gained, or were the system pursued at a loss. Its value is a hygienic and
curative, and not an economic one. Profits are a mere secondary consideration. It is thus
important that this part of the business of asylums should be debited to the institution, as
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