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\~Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner of Assam in the General Department,
dated l&h August, 1878.
READ—
Annual Report on the Tezpur Lunatic Asylum for the year 1877.
Letter No. 247S., dated 3rd June, 1878, from the Deputy-Surgeon-Gencral, Dacca Circle,
forwarding, with comments, the above Report.
RESOLUTION.
THE Deputy-Surgeon-General has, in his covering letter, toadied upon most of the
I points in the Report which call for comment, and the Chief Commissioner does not consider
that any very detailed remarks on his part are necessary. An analysis of figured statements
based upon such small numbers as those in the Tezpur Asylum can serve no useful
purpose.
2. The Asylum is a mere temporary structure. In regard to the erection of
permanent buildings, the Chief Commissioner is not at present in a position to lay down
any definite scheme of operations. A small Asylum is necessarily very costly; the require-
ments of Assam are for many years not likely to demand an Asylum sufficiently large to be
conducted economically; and the funds at the Chief Commissioner's disposal will not
allow of any large expenditure even on the improvement of the present temporary
structure,—but money will be devoted year by year to its improvement, as opportunity
offers.
3. The Chief Commissioner quite agrees, therefore, with Dr. DeRenzy's suggestion,
that before any steps are taken for constructing a permanent Asylum the opinion of the most
experienced officers should be taken on the points raised; but he does not therefore desire
to postpone altogether all improvement of the existing buildings, and such matters as
sub-soil drainage, the improved ventilation, and water-supply, and the better arrangement
for separate cells, may well be made at once the subject of definite proposals.
4. Dr. DeRenzy points out with much justice that the mortality was heavy (13 out
of. a daily average population of 35*46), and that the expense of management and
establishment, as must always be the case in small institutions, was inordinate. He is
under the impression also that the Government of Bengal are willing to take charge of
Assam lunatics for Rs. 90 per head, or half what they cost at Tezpur. The Chief Com-
missioner, if this were the case, would gladly abandon the Tezpur Asylum, and would
transfer all the lunatics of Assam to the Government of Bengal. But the facts are, he fears,
otherwise. It was in consequence of the great overcrowding of the Dacca Asylum that
a separate arrangement had to be made for the care of lunatics from the Assam Valley
districts, and it is only those from Sylhet and Cachar that the Government of Bengal can
consent to receive. The Chief Commissioner is not aware of any change having taken
place in the views of the Government of Bengal on this subject, but he will be very glad
if the Deputy-Surgeon-General of the Dacca Circle can propose any arrangement by
which the Dacca Asylum could be made to meet all the requirements of Assam. Apart
fmm the Avant of space, however, the distance and want of means of communication are
serious obstacles to such an arrangement, as medical authorities are agreed that the loni!*
and trying journeys tend seriously to depress the condition of lunatics before admission,
and thus to render their cure more difficult.
5. Dr. Delvenzy attributes the great mortality among the Tezpur lunatics to two
causes, both of which he infers from the proportion which cases of dysentery and diarrhoea
hear to the whole mortality. The first of these is the probability that the lunatics' rations
are frequently tampered with by subordinates. This certainly happened in the Dacca
Lunatic Asylum, in connection especially with the hospital diets; but no instance of it has
come to light at Tezpur, and Dr. Garden expressly states that he pays particular attention
to the point. The Chief Commissioner would hope, therefore, that this cause of sickness
and mortality does not exist at Tezpur,
The second cause is bad water-supply. Dr. Garden, however, considers that, so long as
the wells do not run dry, the supply is excellent; and rhe mortality, it may be observed,
did not begin till May,—whereas "a considerable quantity of rain fell in April and May,
by which the ground became saturated and the huts extremely damp." Another source
01 bad water-supply suggested by Dr. Deltenzy is that, the wells being covered, a certain