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contingencies proper, which, even when thus reduced, contain several large items,
such as iron tanks and copper boilers. The largest sum debitable under this head
in any other asylum is Rs. 1-8 at Patna, and Rs. 1-6 at Hazaribagh in 1877; but in
most asylums the charge does not exceed a few annas. The chief items making
up the Dullunda contingent bill in 1878 were replacing iron arbours destroyed
by a storm, and originally provided from garden profits, Rs. 1,078 ; iron roof over
pumps, Rs. 174; fitting and supplying water-pipes, Rs. 435; shower-bath in female
ward, Rs. 211. The Superintendents of provincial asylums, when asked how
such charges would be met, had some difficulty in replying. One said he would
apply to the Public Works Department; another, that they would be met from
manufacturing profits (in which case the expenditure would not appear in the pub-
lished accounts); but most were of opinion that they would be chargeable to con-
tingencies. No such expenditure seems, however, to have been incurred. One
Superintendent writes that he has no iron arbours ; another that he should never
think of anything so ambitious ; while, as regards shower-baths, one says that
" ghurras of water are drawn from the well and thrown over the patient." It is
evident that there is no corresponding item in the contingent bills of provincial
asylums. It may be freely admitted that all the items quoted are not absolute
necessaries. It is probable that the costly iron arbours would never have been
sanctioned had sanction been required; but they were originally built and paid
for out of industrial profits, at a time when the profits were devoted to the
improvement of the asylums at the discretion of the Superintendents, a system put
a stop to by Sir George Campbell. The arbours, moreover, serve as shelter
stations for guards in the daytime and are placed with reference to this
object. The water-pipes and shower-baths were duly sanctioned, in conse-
quence of the important discovery that much of the heavy mortality for
which Dullunda was formerly notorious was due to the lunatics using water
contaminated by having been used for bathing and other purposes; and
the effect of the changes introduced has been to reduce the death-rate below
the average of English asylums, and to entirely eliminate dysentery, which was
one of the chief causes of mortality. There is great need of similar arrange-
ments in several of the provincial asylums ; but, if carried out, the cost will
probably be borne and the work done by the Public Works Department.
The only other point which seems to call for explanation is the great
excess in contingencies at Patna as compared with other provincial asylums,
especially Dacca and Berhampore. The explanation is at once forthcoming
when sought for. Ground rent, which does not appear in the accounts of any
other asylum, comes to Rs. 194-10 in 1877 and Rs. 713-15 in 1878; sweet-
meats and rum are charged to contingencies instead of to diet, and so on.
Clothing.—Similar explanations account for the variations in clothing.
Lunatics transferred to Berhampore took new clothing with them from
Dullunda and probably from the other asylums, thus keeping the Berhampore
figures low at the expense of the forwarding asylums. At Patna the lower tem-
perature of the winter necessitates a larger supply of more substantial clothing
than is required elsewhere, but the Superintendent of the Patna Asylum has
informed the committee that the figures in the Surgeon-General's report are
incorrect, and that the real cost was Rs. 2-8-11½ and Rs. 2-9-6 instead of
Rs. 6-1-1 and Rs. 8-0-11. The difference is attributed to bazar rate valuation,
and was a paper entry, debited to clothing on the one side, credited to profits
on the other.
Manufacturing accounts and profits.—The next point to be considered is the
system of manufacture accounts. Prior to 1860, little or no work was done in
the Dullunda Asylum. The main occupations of the lunatics seem to have been
" singing, dancing, cards (not gambling), and music" (Report for 1857), but
Dr. Cantor had begun to try to induce the patients to labour—" a work of time
and patience;" and it is noted with satisfaction that a profit of Rs. 24-11-7 had
accrued in four months. It is admitted, however, that " the occupation left
something to wish for as regarded adequacy and regularity." Rope and twine-
making were the sole employments, and the patients worked in the verandahs,
there being no worksheds or store-rooms. Dr. Payne has carried on and
developed the system thus started by Dr. Cantor, and has from the first
strenuously applied himself to the development of the asylum industry. By
1862 so much progress had been made " with great advantage to the patients