Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Assam, in the General Departmint,
dated Shifting, the 2 [at April, 1880.
HEAD—
Annual Report on the Tezpur Lunatic Asylum for the year 18711.
Letter No. 31S., from the Deputy-Surgeon-General, Assam Circle, forwarding, with comments,
the above Report.
Read also again—
Resolution on the Report on the Teapur Lunatic Asylum for the year 1878.
RESOLUTION.
THE Chief Commissioner is clad to learn from Dr. Warburton's Report and the
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review of it contained in Dr. DeUenzy's letter No. olS., dated 5th March, 1880. that the
working of the Tezpur Lunatic Asylum during the past year has been maintained with the
same measure of success, both in regard to the health of the inmates and to the economy
of the management, as in the previous year.
The officers in charge have worked under some disadvantage, as it was known to
them that the question of abolishing the Asylum was under consideration.
2. The sickness and mortality among the inmates, and the great expense of their
maintenance in the earlier years of its existence, led the Chief Commissioner to inquire
from the Government of Bengal if a system could be arranged by which all but criminal
ex-lunatics and harmless insaues belonging to the Province could be transferred to the
Bengal Asylums of Dacca and Dullunda, with a view to the abolition of the Tezpur
Asylum.
The replies to his inquiries show that at Dacca the accommodation is insufficient to
allow of such a transfer, and at Dullunda the cost would render it the reverse of
economical, and in any case there is not room in these Asylums to receive such a proportion
of the lunatics as would enable him to dispense with the Tezpur institution and its
establishments.
He has therefore been compelled to abandon the idea, and he does so with the less
reluctance, as during the past two years the mortality has been inconsiderable, and the
management has been creditably economical. lie will therefore be prepared to consider
those recommendations for improvement which Dr. Warburton may now think it essential
to send up.
3. The proposals of the Superintendent to break up a large portion of the land available
in the immediate neighbourhood of the Asylum, and to surround the enclosure with a close
" pakoree" hedge, are good, and should be carried out. The system of drainage which has
been adopted, of cutting trenches and inserting a deep layer of boulders and then nearly
filling them with earth, seems to be an excellent one. Very satisfactory results have also
been obtained by adopting the similar procedure of putting a layer of boulders under
the earth floors of the huts, as this plan has been found to provide an effectual and easy
cure for the evil of damp floors, which has hitherto been found so difficult to provide against
under the usual conditions of buildino; in Assam. Dr. Delienzv, Denutv-Surgeon-General
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oi the Assam Circle, in forwarding the report, points out that, though the buildings ot the
Asylum are still of the flimsy and inexpensive nature they were described to be in last year's
report, this circumstance has proved no obstacle to the maintenance of the lunatics in good
health. The Chief Commissioner is glad to find such a high authority on sanitary matters
supporting his view (in which each year's experience confirms him) that in the clamp and
equable climate of Assam both health and economy are better consulted by housing the
inmates of Lunatic Asylums and Jails in constructions of bamboos and mats, rather
than of timber or bricks and mortar.
4. The large proportion of natives from other provinces in the Asylum population is
very noticeable. Since the Asylum was started, in 187 G, 40 per cent, of the inmates have
been foreigners. In the year under review, nine foreigners were admitted and only two
natives of Assam. This is probably correctly explained by the Superintendent, when he
points out that the chronic lunatics of this Province who had no friends to look after them
were all admitted in the earlier years of the existence of the Asylum. On the other hand,
foreigners who become lunatics are usually without any friends in this Province to support
thern. In most instance also it is, from the nature of the case, almost impossible to trace the
history of lunatics who are foreigners, as they are usually unable to give any account of them-
selves. The Government of Bengal has signified its willingness to return to their homes,