LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
13
Diseases causing
mortality.
Comparison with
past years.
28. Causes of Mortality.—The diseases which caused the mortality of the year are
shown in statement No. 8. Of the 119 deaths 22, or 18.5 per cent., were due to dysentery;
12, or 10.1, to debility; a similar number and ratio to pneumonia; 11, or 9.2, to cholera;
10, or 8.4, to diarrhœa; and 8, or 6.7, to phthisis. The results of the preceding 10 years, as
shown in the appendix, give the following figures:—dysentery, 17.4 per cent. of the whole;
debility, 13.2; cholera, 10.3; diarrhœa, 10.1; phthisis, 10.1; anæmia, 6.5; maniacal exhaustion,
5.2; and pneumonia, 3.4. These causes combined account for 74. 1 per cent. of the 1,054
deaths which were registered in these years. The peculiarities of 1873 were rather less cholera
and more chest disease than usual. The deaths from cholera were confined to the Dacca
asylum, where a severe outbreak of the disease occurred. This partly accounts for the very
high mortality of this asylum. The deaths from chest disease were almost entirely
confined to the Dacca and Dullunda asylums. They are discussed by the superintendents
in their reports, and attributed, I think with truth, to overcrowding. The great scourge of
asylums continue to be bowel complaints—dysentery and diarrhœa; and Dullunda again
holds a prominent place among other asylums in this respect. The number of deaths due
immediately and directly to lesions of the nervous system is less than might be looked for,
but insanity predisposes to, and aggravates all states of organic degeneration and disease
to which the body is liable.
No. 8.
Showing the diseases under which mortality occurred.
Detail of diseases
causing mortality.
Dullunda ...
Dacca ...
Patna ...
Cuttack ...
Moydapore ...
Total ...
I.––GENERAL DISEASES.
Sub-
division A.
9 Typhoid fever.
1
1
...
...
...
2
16 Remittent fever.
1
...
5
...
...
6
18 Malignant cholera.
...
11
...
...
...
11
30 Erysipelas.
1
...
...
...
...
1
Sub-
division B.
43-a Primary syphilis.
...
...
1
...
...
1
49-1 Phthisis pulmonalis.
5
3
...
...
...
8
55 Anaemia.
2
...
...
...
...
2
67 General dropsy.
...
...
1
...
...
1
II.––LOCAL DISEASES.
DISEASES OF THE
Nervous system.
60-3 Tubercular meningitis.
...
1
...
...
...
1
64 Abscess of the brain.
1
...
...
...
...
1
65 Apoplexy.
1
2
...
...
...
3
69 Atrophy of the brain.
...
...
...
...
1
1
90 Tetanus.
...
1
...
...
...
1
93 Epilepsy.
1
...
1
...
...
2
105-a Acute mania.
3
...
...
...
...
3
108 Paralysis of the insane.
...
...
...
...
1
1
Circu-
latory
system.
219 Pericarditis.
...
1
...
...
...
1
233 Fatty degeneration.
...
1
...
...
...
1
Respira-
tory
system.
315 Pneumonia.
3
8
...
...
1
12
317 Gangrene.
...
...
...
...
1
1
318 Passive congestion.
...
1
...
...
...
1
325 Acute pneumonic phthisis.
2
...
...
...
...
2
331 Pleurisy.
1
...
...
...
...
1
Digestive
system.
460 Dyspepsia.
...
...
1
...
...
1
466 Dysentery.
14
5
3
...
...
22
484 Diarrhœa.
3
1
6
...
...
10
501 Hepatitis.
...
...
1
...
...
1
524 Splenitis.
...
1
...
...
...
1
531 Peritonitis.
...
...
...
1
...
1
531-d Tubercular peritonitis.
...
1
...
...
...
1
Urinary
system.
538-2 Chronic Bright's disease.
...
1
...
...
...
1
Locomotive
system.
760 Necrosis.
...
1
...
...
...
1
Cellular
tissue.
819 Abscess.
1
...
...
...
...
1
III.—Conditions not
general or local.
904 Old age.
...
1
...
...
...
1
905 Debility.
...
5
7
...
...
12
Injuries.
995-a Drowning.
...
1
1
...
...
2
Total.
40
47
27
1
4
119
Varieties of
insanity.
29. Types of Insanity.—Statement No. 9 shows the varieties of insanity under which
the patients who were admitted and treated during the year labored. The table is more correct '
than those given in previous reports, because it represents the forms of mental disorder
which patients manifested during the year under report, and not those under which they
labored on admission. Of the lunatics admitted, 53.1 labored under acute forms of insanity
and 46.9 under chronic. The percentages of acute insanity in 1871-72 were 55.2 and
53. The proportion of acute insanity was rather higher among males than females,
but the latter would appear to be more prone to melancholia. The proportion of acute
insanity among those remaining under treatment from previous years was 22.5. The
comparative absence of general paralysis is again remarkable; this disease, so common in the
asylums of Europe and America, being represented by but one case. The greatest number of
recoveries took place among those laboring under acute mania, and most deaths (to treated)
among melancholiacs, chronic maniacs, acute dements, acute maniacs and chronic dements
following. Dr. Cayley's remarks on the looseness of a classification depending on psycho-
logical manifestations are very true; but our knowledge of insanity has not as yet reached
a stage at which we are able to name cerebral disorders according to the pathological conditions
underlying them.