( 7 )
VI.—That a new column be added to statement XI showing the real profit of
the asylums.
The Committee remark that the additional column is required to admit
of a comparison being made of the industrial results of the asylums inter se.
The present column of " profits" should be retained.
14. The Lieutenant-Governor approves the proposal (VII) that all
asylums should adopt the same system of supply,—i.e., that raw materials purchased
for diet, clothing, lighting or other purposes, when worked up for use by asylum
labour, should be issued without charge, and without the intervention of any
intermediary.
The Committee's proposals (VIII) that a statement showing the ruling prices
of the chief articles of diet should invariably accompany each report, and (IX) also
an analysis of the contingent expenditure are also approved. The Lieutenant-
Governor entirely agrees with the Committee that although any general
uniformity in cost at the different asylums can, under present conditions,
scarcely be expected, yet it is essentially desirable that means should be
afforded for an approximate comparison of all important items of expenditure
in the several asylums.
15. The Committee conclude their report by reviewing the history and
working of the Bhowanipore European Asylum. The establishment is fixed
and does not vary with the number of patients. It has been reduced to
a minimum already, and the Committee state that there is no superfluous
person employed. The cost is Rs. 783 per mensem. On the important matter
of diet, the Committee write:—
The average cost of diet per patient given by order in the annual reports is a
correct arithmetical mean between the cost of paying patients with their liberally supplied
separate table, and that of pauper patients with their simpler and cheaper food. Even
as a mean it is useless for comparing the expenditure of one year with another, since the
proportion of paying patients to paupers varies in every year, indeed from month to month,
and day to day. The total expenditure on diet in different years is therefore not comparable,
and as prior to 1877 the books do not discriminate between the two classes of patients, it is
impossible to ascertain the relative cost of each class in former years. The total cost varies
greatly, but the variations are believed to be explainable by variations in the proportion
of first class and second class patients.
Meat
...
...
...
...
...
...
Bread
...
...
...
...
...
...
Vegetables
...
...
...
...
...
Rice
...
...
...
...
...
...
Sugar
...
...
...
...
...
...
Onions
...
...
...
...
...
...
Butter
...
...
...
...
...
...
Flour
...
...
...
...
...
...
Farley
...
...
...
...
...
...
Tea
...
...
...
...
...
...
Spices
...
...
...
...
...
...
1 lb.
1 „
1 „
4 oz.
1 „
1 „
1 „
½ „
½ „
½ „
¾ „
Fruit.
Lemonade.
Milk, one measure.
Average.
1856
1857
1858
1859
1960
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1876
1875
1877
1878
Strength.
...
...
...
...
59
66
46
36
26
27
23
25
26
27
25
30
38
27
25
26
26
29
28
No. of
deaths.
9
4
8
3
5
5
5
3
1
2
6
7
3
2
2
3
1
4
3
3
4
0
5
Per cent. of
deaths.
......
......
......
......
8.13
8.93
10.37
8.33
3.85
7.40
26.08
28.00
11.54
7.40
8.00
10.00
2.63
14.80
12.00
11.54
16.38
......
17.86
There can be little doubt that up to 1862 the quantity of food supplied was excessive, for
although there were no diet-scales, that noted in
the margin was considered " a bare standard full
diet" for the pauper patients, subject to daily
alterations and additions, such as "poultry, pastry,
wine, beer, coffee, ice, &c." The first class
patients had for breakfast " eggs, fish, steaks,
chops, cold meat, rice, fruit, preserves, tea,
coffee," and for dinner, " soup, joints, or poultry,
side-dishes, vegetables, pastry, fruit, preserves,
sherry, port, beer, lemonade of lemons or bael,
iced when desired," and tea and toast morning and
evening. The quantities appear to have been unlimited. The second class " bare standard "
scale, prescribes 56 ounces of food exclusive of fruit, condiments, and milk, or nearly double
the quantity which one of the latest authorities on food states to be sufficient for Europeans
working in a cold climate, where more food is necessary than in India, and far more than most
actively employed Europeans consume in India. Considering that the lunatics do no work,
Dr. Payne reduced the quantities considerably in 1862 without in any way affecting the health
of the patients. They have always been singularly healthy,—a fact repeatedly mentioned in the
reports. The death-rate of so small a community
is extremely misleading. One or two deaths
more or less will make an enormous difference
in the rates, as is shown in the margin. A con-
siderable number of these deaths took place
shortly after admission, the patients being hope-
lessly ill when received into the asylum; and
the amount of sickness has always been small.
The death-rates prior to 1860 cannot be calcu-
lated, as the average strength was unknown, but
the actual number of deaths vary greatly as in
subsequent years. One man who died this year
(1879) had been 48 years in the asylum. Of
the five deaths last year, one occurred in a man
aged about 70; one case was admitted moribund;
and another with the fatal illness already
developed; none of the five could be attri-
buted to the influence of the asylum. Sickness