RESOLUTION.
JUDICIAL.
Calcutta, the 5th January 1875.
READ—
The report on the Insane Asylums in Bengal for 1873.
Read also—
Letter No. 1153, dated 20th December 1873, from the Surgeon-General, Indian Medical
Department, submitting a special report on the employment of mechanical restraint
on lunatics in the Dullunda Asylum.
Read again—
The report on the Insane Asylums in Bengal for 1872.
THE Lieutenant-Governor has much pleasure in acknowledging the
complete manner in which the statistics of the insane asylums in Bengal
for the past year have been dealt with by the Surgeon-General in his report.
The results of a series of years past have been subjected to a careful and
exhaustive analysis; and the value of the usual annual returns has been much
enhanced by the assistance thus afforded in contrasting those of one year with
those of another, and in arriving at a just appreciation of the true significance
of the figures they contain.
2. The subject which calls for the most prominent remark, is the
rapidly progressive growth of the numbers in the native insane asylums.
This has long attracted attention, and is once more forcibly pressed on the
notice of Government with a view to an increase in asylum accommodation.
The extent to which in successive years these numbers have increased is
best seen by a reference to the figures showing the total population of the
asylums on the 1st January of each year. In 1868, the number was 652 only.
The average of the five years 1868-72 amounted to 739; while at the close of
the past year it amounted to 1,003, compared with 972 at its commencement.
3. Similar results are observable on a reference to the daily average
number of insanes in confinement. In 1873 this amounted to 991, against
903 in 1872, and 777 on an average of the five years 1868 to 1872. The total
number of patients treated in 1873 amounted to 1,486, against 1,352 in
the previous year, and 1,174 on an average of the five years. The increasing
number of patients was not, it would thus appear, met by a proportionate
decrease in the period of their detention. In 1873 this amounted, on an
average, to 243.6 days, which is somewhat less than the corresponding figures
for three years previously; but it is apparent, on considering the results of a
longer series of years, that this improvement is temporary only.
4. The accommodation of chronic lunatics, who it is said constitute
year by year in these asylums a larger proportion of the inmates, must
result in a prolongation of the average period of detention. The same result
is to be apprehended from the increasing number of a certain class of criminal
lunatics. Under the amended law, these may be detained in custody
indefinitely, without reference necessarily to their present state of mind; and
cases not unfrequently happen in which it is inadvisable to release the
criminal very soon after his recovery, as it may not be possible to do so
consistently with the safety of the public and with a regard to the character of
the offence committed. Such criminals form a mischievous element, which it
is desirable to eliminate from the asylums, and the Lieutenant-Governor has
under consideration a proposal to transfer them to the Presidency Jail. A
reference has been made to the Inspector-General of Jails on the subject.
5. The average yearly number of admissions to the asylums during the
period of five years ending with 1872 was 434.8. In 1873 they amounted
to 514—a number which, however, was less by eleven than that of the
previous year. The ratio of admissions to average strength was 51.8, or less by
4.1 per cent. than the average of the previous five years. The number of
discharges and deaths fell short of the admissions by 31, or 3.1 per cent. on the