8
Accommodation.
22. The accommodation at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad was abundant ;
that for female lunatics at Poona and for both sexes
at Dharwar is said to be insufficient for the wants of
those districts. The overcrowded state of Colaba Asylum has been the sub-
ject of frequent complaints, and I have repeatedly brought it to the notice
of Government during the past year. The evil is increasing annually through
the accumulation of chronic cases—a large proportion of the inmates, to
quote Dr. Murphy's report, being " made up of demented old men and
women, of a few idiots, and a crowd of confirmed epileptics." The evil is
intensified by the defective construction of the buildings, the insufficient
water-supply, and the malarious and general insanitary surroundings of the
asylum. The daily average strength, as may be observed from Statement
No. 1, has risen from 261 in 1875 to 287.2 in 1876; while the total admissions
and re-admissions have fallen from 209 in the former to 180 in the year
under report. Unless this state of things is remedied, it is clear that at no
distant date Colaba will be filled altogether with incurables, thus involving
the rejection of all subsequent applications for admission, bringing matters,
in fact, to a complete dead-lock. In my opinion, it is no longer safe to defer
taking steps for the relief of this overcrowding at Colaba. The carrying out
of Mr. Crawford's proposal to build an asylum at Ratnágiri, referred to in
Government Resolution 3192, General Department, dated October 11th,
1876, would be a step in the right direction, although erecting an asylum of
the comparatively small capacity he recommends would be but putting off
the day when a large establishment for harmless incurables, capable of
accommodating at least 350 inmates, will have to be built in some healthy
central locality, where the cost of living is as cheap as it appears to be at
Ratnágiri.
General Health.
23. The amount of sickness amongst the inmates at Dharwar and
Ahmedabad was less than in the previous year. At
Poona it remains much the same. In all these it may
be pronounced good. At Colaba and Hyderabad the general health was the
reverse of good, malarious fevers having been very prevalent amongst the
population of both asylums. At Hyderabad malarious fevers and bowel dis-
eases are, of course, more or less inseparable from the locality ; but, for the
reasons of the extreme unhealthiness of Colaba, I would beg to draw special
attention to paragraph 11 of the Superintendent's report.
Causes of Insanity.
24. The cause of insanity is, as usual, unknown in a majority of the
cases treated. In many instances this can, of course,
be easily explained by the fact that they have been
found wandering about, and are without either friends or relations who could
give any history concerning them. On this subject, however, I beg to repeat
the remarks made in paragraph 24 of my last report.
Treatment and Cures.
25. I would again urge upon Government the necessity for erecting a
separate asylum for criminal lunatics. Experience
teaches us that so long as criminals and non-criminals
are associated together in the same asylum, so long will the results of treat-
ment for the amelioration of mental disease be, in each case, unsatisfactory.
That this is not the only objection to the association of these two classes of
lunatics, paragraph 12 of my Report for 1874-75 will show. The presence of
criminals is a perpetual source of annoyance to non-criminals, and the latter
are inclined to resent this forced association by teasing and irritating the
former, It is no uncommon occurrence for non-criminals to taunt the others