9
with their crimes, and in this way incite them to violence, thus, in many cases,
rendering nugatory all efforts in the direction of treatment. The presence, too,
in an asylum of a large number of confirmed lunatics has a very unfavourable
influence on the treatment of those who may be susceptible of cure, especially
when all are so crowded together as they are at Colaba; but here, in addition,
so large a proportion of the inmates are incurables that but little scope is left
for treatment at all. Dr. Murphy finds that considerable benefit accrues
from keeping those who are fit for it at steady, suitable employment in the
workshops, and he has also found that abolishing the system of seclusion, to
a great extent, in the treatment of violent lunatics has been attended with
very satisfactory results. The higher percentage of cases amongst the
married insanes, as shown in the first table in paragraph 17, is noticeable; the
low percentage amongst the " unknown" is probably due to the fact that most
of the insanes coming under this category are cases found wandering in the
streets and elsewhere, and in whom their disease is of long standing. The
percentage of cures to daily average strength has, as might be expected,
undergone no increase, but has, on the contrary, declined. During the year
under report the figures were 15.3, while those for the preceding year were
16.6.
Employment.
26. The rate at which the number of insanes employed at Colaba
increases annually is very satisfactory, and highly
creditable to the efforts of the Superintendent. At
the other asylums the numbers do not differ from those of last year. Dr.
Holmested gives a most favourable account of the manner in which he has
utilized the labour of the inmates at Hyderabad. The Superintendent at
Poona remarks on the beneficial results, to both body and mind, from healthy
employment; and he mentions the success which has attended his efforts
towards the cultivation of the asylum compound by means of lunatic labour.
The value of healthy work, as a curative agent, cannot be over-estimated, to
say nothing of the desirability of encouraging it as a means towards lessening
expense.
Restraint.
27. Restraint, if it may be called so, has been needed only in two cases,
both violent maniacs. At Colaba one of these was
successfully treated by his being placed in handcuffs
and allowed to move about ; the other case of restraint, at Hyderabad, was
no more than solitary confinement in a large ward.
Escapes.
28. Two escapes are recorded—one, a criminal, from Colaba, and the
other from Poona; the first was captured and re-
admitted, but the latter still remains at large.
Establishments.
29. The establishments are all favourably reported on. The highly
satisfactory manner in which Mr. Joseph Solomon,
the Hospital Assistant at Ahmedabad Asylum, dis-
charges his duties, is again brought to notice by the Superintendent.
Vaccination.
30. At Ahmedabad and Hyderabad all the inmates are protected ; but
although the other Superintendents make no men-
tion of vaccination, the fact that there has not been
a single case of small-pox recorded from any of the asylums even during a
period when that disease was exceptionally prevalent elsewhere, and even in
their vicinity, would seem to point to effectual measures of protection having
been adopted in all.
B 864—2