Report on the Punjab Lunatic Asylum for the Triennium
1915-1917.
Population.
DURING the 3 years under report the total population for each year
has been 1,053, 1,119 and 1,227 showing a
definite and steady increase and an advance of
184, on the largest number reported in any previous year. This growth in the
population has been a consistent feature ever since the opening of the institu-
tion in 1900, when the number was only 465.
The increase in the female branch is still maintained the largest number
being 235 in 1915, as compared with the previous maximum of 216 in 1914.
The very large increase among the number of males of 112 in 1917, on the
total number in 1916, is accounted for by the great ingress of Military
insanes from the various Overseas Expeditionary Forces, there being 123
admissions in the year from this class alone.
Apart from this accidental source of increase, I think it may reasonably
be claimed that the steady growth of the population is an index of the very
high reputation of the Institution and the popularity it continues to enjoy.
The number discharged cured during the last year of the triennium has
shown a falling off, there being 108 against 142, and 116 in the two previous
years, but when coupled with the number discharged as " improved"
there is no very marked difference in the actual percentage of the mentality
of those leaving the asylum, for it is obvious that the number cured and im-
proved are to an extent linked together.
The total number of criminal insanes also shows an increase, but the
statistics are rather vitiated by the inclusion of re-admissions ; these are patients
who have already been in the asylum leave to stand their trial, and being
acquitted on the ground of insanity are not set free, but return to pass a
certain period of complete immunity from insanity before being finally dis-
charged. Again, from the fact that men are frequently sent in under the
most trivial circumstances as criminals such as found wandering into some-
body's compound, or prosecuted for having no ostensible means of livelihood,
etc., when they are merely insane, it is obvious that numbers so calculated
are by no means a correct indication of crime as connected with insanity. In
this connection there has recently been discharged to stand his trial a young
Punjabi Muhammadan who was admitted here as a criminal lunatic for a petty
offence committed in the confusion following an overdose of charas. The
man was acquitted with the felicitous result that he immediately exhibited
his loyalty by enlisting in the Indian Army. There has been a marked falling
off in the number of criminal females, there being only one admission during
the past 3 years
Accommodation.
2. With the large and rapid increase of numbers during the triennium,
overcrowding has followed in all the sections
more or less, the only one where such was not
the case, was in the hospital enclosure which provides for 150 patients. In
the early part of 1915, the variety of accommodation was very valuably
augmented by an increase of separate rooms through the conversion of 3 of
the sleeping barracks into 60 cubicles. This arrangement, though very
excellent in its way and meeting a longfelt want, reduced the actual accom-
modation in these areas by 40. To meet the overflow of numbers a top floor
of 20 cells was added to the new quarantine block early in 1917, and this
was certainly a useful and valuable adjunct. The time has undoubtedly
arrived when a large augmentation to meet this steady increase has to be faced.
There is no indication that the number of inmates will be anything but
progressive as years go on, and the most appropriate way, in my opinion
to meet it, would be to establish a distinct and separate enclosure adjoining
the present institution solely for criminal lunatics to accommodate, say 200.