40
DACCA ASYLUM.
The keepers of the asylum are not at all what they ought to be; the pay is insufficient
to attract good men; and it seems to me unreasonable to suppose that in Dacca any native
who has no more than Rs. 5 per mensem can be trusted to feed and nurse lunatics. If
the keepers got nothing more from the asylum than their Rs. 5 per mensem, I do not under-
stand why they serve, since it is clear that they can readily get higher wages for less work
out of the asylum. The large number of annual escapes from the asylum further indicates a
want of carefulness and attention on the part of the keepers.
16. Management.—The lunatics have been largely employed in out-door work. Some of
the most trustworthy are sent with keepers to cut and bring in wood from a jungle in the
immediate vicinity of Dacca. A large number find occupation in the garden, and a smaller
proportion work at the manufactures. During the year the following alterations and improve-
ments have been effected. The new department for females was completed, and the wards
occupied in August. The old privy has been altered, and adapted to the working of the dry
earth system of conservancy. The compound had to be levelled, and roads made. Flower-
beds and grass-plots were laid out, and shrubberies and ornamental trees planted. The row
of old cells was converted into a workshed by opening out broad arches between them.
Throughout the asylum the old roads have been broken up and new metalled. The boun-
dary wall of the old hospital has been pulled down, so as to increase space and ensure a better
perflation of air throughout that part of the asylum. The old grass-plots, situated between
the wards and walls of the asylum, have been laid out as ornamental flower gardens, with a
view to remove the barrack-like appearance of the place, and to give it, so far as is possible,
a look of cheerfulness and freedom. Shrubs and creepers have been so planted as to
produce a pretty effect in concealing the ugly walls, and in robbing them of their prison-
like appearance. Several large pieces of land, which formerly lay waste, have been dug
deeply, well manured, and cultivated. The old office has been enlarged and improved and
furnished by the labor and skill of the lunatics. The internal arrangements of the office
have been improved. In the cook-rooms, asphalt flooring and iron tubs have been intro-
duced, and filters have been set up, and are in use. The vegetable garden has been very
much improved, though at the cost of much labor. A new mill for the manufacture of
mustard oil has been erected. Gunny looms have been constructed, and much gunny cloth
manufactured by the lunatics. A castor oil press has been set up, and when a market for the
oil has been created, it will yield good returns. The old hospital has been set aside for special
cases, and the building formerly known as the old jail hospital is now made use of as an
infirmary, to which not only the obviously sick are sent, but also all feeble, helpless lunatics,
who require a closer observation than can be ensured for them in the general wards of the
asylum. This building contains 1,787 superficial square feet of area within its wards, whereas
the old hospital contains only 630 superficial square feet. The daily average distribution of
the patients is thus represented:—Sick in hospital, 30.44; intractable, 8.28; employed, 183.84 ;
total, 222.57. Of the treatment of insanity in its medical aspect, I have nothing new
to remark.
17. Requirements.—From the plan of the new buildings for the asylum, a day privy
for the lunatics was omitted. This omission is the more remarkable, as no permanent day
privy actually existed. I have brought the subject to the notice of the Department of Public
Works, and now trust that the Medical Department will point out to the Government the
desirability of having this privy erected with as little delay as possible. Several months have
elapsed since the plans and estimates were first prepared by the Executive Engineer, who will,
I hope, be allowed to put them into execution without further delay. The means of supply-
ing the asylum with water for irrigation purposes has long been under consideration.
Estimates of requirements have been sent to the Executive Engineer, and I trust that he may
be requested to bring the subject forward for sanction and completion with as little delay as
possible. Considerable profit would result from a proper water-supply to the asylum and