( 8 )
Diet.
Dullunda
...
...
...
Dacca
...
...
...
Patna ... ...
...
Cuttack
... ... ...
Berhampore
...
...
Hazaribagh
...
...
1877.
Average
cost
per patient.
Rs.
57
56
45
37
36
35
A.
13
10
14
6
11
0
P.
9
9
8
9
6
8
1878.
Average
cost
per patient.
Rs.
55
65
54
35
44
39
A.
12
1
12
10
6
13
P.
7
3
2
1
0
3
Dacca.
1874
...
...
...
1875
...
...
...
1876
...
...
...
1877
...
...
...
1878
...
...
...
Rs.
60
57
54
56
65
A.
1
4
3
10
1
P.
11
0
7
9
3
Rice ...
Wheat flour
Pulses ...
Mutton ...
Ghee ...
Oil ...
Vegetables...
Spices ...
Salt ...
Fish ...
Milk ...
Dullunda.
Rs.
4
5
4
12
32
16
3
6
4
12
6
A.
0
0
0
8
0
0
8
3
8
8
11
P.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Patna.
Rs.
3
A.
7
P.
0
to
4
3
5
12
6
5
0
0
0
to
5
5
32
10
0
0
0
0
0
......
......
5
4
0
12
0
0
......
2 6 0
Dacca.
Rs.
3
6
4
A.
4
7
15
P.
9
0
0
to
7
10
35
17
1
8
4
6
4
7
0
7
8
15
0
5
4
15
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Cuttack.
Rs.
2
A.
2
P.
3
......
2 13 8
......
22
1
13
14
9
0
3
5
3
12
10
5
0
0
4
Berhampore.
Rs.
4
5
A.
0
0
P.
0
0
......
10
31
17
0
3
12
0
6
5
......
7
4
6
12
0
0
5
0
1
......
Hazaribagh.
Rs.
2
5
A.
15
10
P.
0
0
......
12
24
14
1
8
10
4
12
0
0
0
0
......
5 0 0
......
2 8 0
full market rates and credit the difference to manufacturing profits. Dullunda
includes tobacco, sweetmeats, &c., under
diet; other asylums debit them to contin-
gencies. The expenditure as given in the
official reports has been as noted in the
margin during the last two years. The
variations are extremely large, but they
seem to the Committee to be almost
entirely explainable by the difference in
the local price of supplies. The year 1878
was one of extremely high prices every-
where. The returns of all the asylums, except Cuttack and Dullunda, show this;
but Dullunda was influenced by it also. The reduction would have been much
greater than it is but for the extremely high rates ruling in Calcutta; yet it is
not a real reduction, but only one of account. In former years the food was
bought wholesale and in the rough, was husked, cleaned, ground, and prepared
for use in the asylum, and charged for at the market price of the prepared
article, the labour fund being credited with the difference. In 1878 only the
price of raw material was debited to Government, the labour spent on preparing
it being given gratis. The apparent saving in diet is balanced by the falling
off in profits, and there is no real gain, although the fact furnishes yet
another instance of the misleading nature of the
figures when unexplained. At Dacca the expendi-
ture on diet has fluctuated enormously of late years,
but the differences correspond very closely with
the variations in the bazar prices. A diagram has
been prepared, which shows this very clearly, and the Committee are satisfied
that Dr. Crombie's explanation of the excessive cost of diet last year is sufficient.
Efforts were made to reduce the cost by some small changes in the dietary, but
as they led to loss of weight in the patients, they were very properly dis-
continued. At Dacca, too, very few things were made over to the asylum
free of charge. The articles were sold to the contractor and re-sold by him to
the asylum, producing a precisely opposite effect to that noticed at Dullunda:
the cost of diet increasing and the profits increasing too. A similar explanation
applies to the figures of the other asylums. The accompanying diagram shows
the cost per patient in rupees, and the average price of common rice at all
the asylums, and the two
curves correspond very
closely on the whole, the
chief variations being in
Dullunda, where they are
due to changes of diet not
connected with the price
of rice. The price of
other articles varies even
more than that of rice, as
is shown in the table in
the margin taken from
the report for 1878, and
it is quite impossible to make such an approximately correct estimate of the
comparative cost as would allow of inference as to economy or the reverse on
the part of Superintendents.
What the diagram does show is that the great differences in different
asylums, and the great variations in the cost of diet in the same asylum during
different years, are for the most part accounted for. There are, however,
other conditions, one of which is the difference in the quality of food supplied.
In the resolution on the report for 1877, it was remarked that, while the diet of
each lunatic cost Rs. 57 at Dullunda and only Rs. 36 at Berhampore—a
difference of Rs. 21—the cost of dieting a prisoner was only Rs. 3 higher in
the Presidency than at Berhampore. The Committee find that the lunatics
and prisoners at Berhampore got the same rice; whereas the rice in use at
Dullunda cost Rs. 1-5 a maund more than that used in the jail. The reason of
this was the old standing order in the Dullunda rules that the provisions were