LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.
9
Causes of insanity.
19. Causes of insanity.—These are shewn in detail in table No. VII, appended. Out of
501 admissions, a cause has been assigned in 329, or 65 per cent. of the cases. Of these, 197,
or nearly 60 per cent., are attributed to ganjah. This is higher than the proportion of 1873,
and would indicate that the new restrictions placed on the consumption of this drug have
not as yet affected the number of cases of insanity produced by its use. Next to ganjah, grief,
the use of spirits, hereditary predisposition, epilepsy, and fever, are the most commonly assigned
causes of insanity. Physical causes again greatly preponderate over moral, and the
comparative number of females whose insanity is said to be due to grief is again remarkable.
The proportion of criminal lunatics whose insanity is attributed to ganjah is again smaller
than that of non-criminal lunatics. The figures shewn in this table are not entitled to
implicit trust, because the information on which they are based is not always very reliable.
Sickness.
20. Sickness.—The sickness of asylums was, as compared with strength, very little above
the average (vide statement No. 2). Table V shews the principal diseases from which the
lunatics who were treated in hospital labored. Fevers give the highest number of admis-
sions; next dysentery; next diarrhœa: debility, injuries, ulcer, mania, abscess, rheumatism,
cholera, phthisis, pneumonia, anæmia, and dropsy follow. It is satisfactory to find infectious
diseases conspicuous by their absence. There were only two cases of small-pox with one
death representing this class. The large number of cases of injury treated in the Dacca
asylum is observable. They must have been slight, and perhaps other superintendents do not
register such cases. It is curious to observe, as indicating the different modes in which
returns are prepared by different superintendents, that the Dullunda returns shew no case
of debility (12 cases of maniacal debility and 14 of maniacal exhaustion excepted), while
Dacca shews 53 cases, and Patna 30. Fevers too are remarkably few in Dullunda, slight
cases not being probably admitted and registered.
Management.
Restraint.
The "Gheel"
system.
21. Management.—I have nothing new to record under this head. Industry, order, and
attention to health, continue to constitute the principles on which asylums are governed.
Mechanical restraint is still employed in Dullunda to a slight extent. The " Gheel "
system has made no progress at Dacca.
Finances.
22. Finances.—The cash accounts of all asylums have now been prepared in accordance
with the new rules, and submitted in the forms laid down by the Government of India.
Statement No. 10 summarises the tables submitted by the several asylums instructively.
An explanation.
Average cost of
each patient.
It is necessary to remark that the total of expenditure includes the estimated cost of supplies
obtained from the asylum; so that it represents rather what the maintenance of lunatics
would have cost Government had every article been purchased outside, than what was actually
paid in hard cash. The fictitious excess consists in the difference between what the raw
material costs and the estimated price of the manufactured product made over for asylum
use. As, however, Government is credited with the excess of sales or estimated sales over
cost of materials, the net cost of each lunatic, as shewn in column 6, is a true figure. In
other words, the figure shewn in column 4 neutralises the excess shewn in column 2. This
system of account was considered necessary in order to permit of the accounts of the Manu-
facturing Department being fairly and fully drawn up. The average cost of each patient,
after deductions on account of receipts for paying-patients and industrial profits are allowed
for, is rather less than in 1873. The receipts for paying-patients only amounted to
Rs. 1,686, against Rs. 1,824 in 1873. The figure denoting industrial profits, Rs. 10,244, is a
large one, and may be accepted as real, with the reservation that it includes the profit on articles
sold by the asylum to itself.
STATEMENT No. 10.
Showing the Receipts and Expenditure of each Asylum for the year 1874.
ASYLUMS.
Dullunda ...
Dacca ... ...
Patna ... ...
Cuttack ...
Moydapore ...
Berhampore* ...
Total ...
1
Daily average
strength.
351.95
255.62
280.82
57.84
75.11
82.3
1,050.86
2
Total expenditure.
Rs.
46,992
27,679
26,542
5,631
6,249
3,377
1,16,474
A.
10
15
10
5
15
11
3
P.
4
6
0
4
2
5
9
3
Realized from the
friends of patients.
Rs.
1,229
411
24
A.
4
5
0
P.
0
0
0
......
15
7
1,686
0
5
14
0
3
3
4
Actual profit from
Manufacture De-
partment.
Rs.
5,709
3,058
1,077
113
220
65
10,244
A.
0
4
12 12 0
14
12
P.
3
10
3
0
5
9
6
5
Average cost of
each patient as
per column 2.
Rs.
133
108
94
97
83
41
110
A.
8
4
8
5
3
0
13
P.
4
6
3
9
4
8
4
6
Average cost of
each patient de-
ducting columns
3 and 4.
Rs.
113
94
90
95
80
40
99
A.
12
11
9
6
1
2
7
P.
11
4
6
3
3
5
8
7
8
9
10
11
AVERAGE COST OF EACH PATIENT IN RELATION
TO—
Establish-
ment.
Rs.
57
35
30
59
38
24
43
A.
6
3
7
11
5
3
13
P.
8
1
0
9
9
6
7
Diet.
Rs.
60
59
58
32
41
15
56
A.
12
15
7
4
9
0
7
P.
8
7
2
8
10
4
11
Bazar medi-
cines.
Rs.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
A.
1
5
1
0
0
0
2
P.
9
9
1
8
7
4
5
Contingen-
cies.
Rs.
11
8
2
2
1
0
6
A.
8
2
11
1
7
12
13
P.
2
7
7
0
11
7
7
Clothing.
Rs.
3
4
2
3
1
0
3
A.
11
9
13
3
11
15
7
P.
1
6
5
8
3
10
10
* For five months.
On c o ma p r i n g the asylums it will be seen that Dullunda, while the most expensive, is also Comparison of
first in respect of realizations for maintenance and industrial profits. Dacca comes second to asylums.
c