( 6 )
This department, which is in its object virtually a Government prison, presents
little requiring remark or offering matters of interest to those whose duties are
almost confined to the safe custody of the inmates and superintending the inter-
nal economy of the department. The Chief Commissioner, upon whose warrant
alone patients can be admitted or discharged, is furnished with periodical reports
of the state of each lunatic. Such employment is furnished and recreation per-
mitted as can be safely and properly given. It must be however obvious that
the greatest circumspection must be used with a body of patients whose safe cus-
tody is of the greatest importance, especially when it is recollected that the crimes
which a large proportion of them have committed are of a very grave nature ;
while in many other cases the degree of insanity of the inmates has either been
greatly mitigated, or is less obvious to those who have charge of them than to the
Judges and assessors whose verdicts have consigned them to lunatic asylums.
It is unnecessary to add that these patients are treated in the same careful manner
which pervades the other department—the civil—of the establishment.
Statement No. III.—In this are classified the religion and sex of the admis-
sions and the different parts from which they came: 44 were Burmans, 2 Euro-
peans, 12 Hindus, 7 Mahomedans, and 4 of other sects, giving a total of 69 admis-
sions, being 63 males and 6 females. Rangoon contributed 23, Moulmein 7,
Tharrawaddy 5, Henzada, Kyoukpyoo, Maoobin, and Prome 4 each, Hanthawaddy
3, Akyab, Amherst, Bassein, Papoon, and Thayetmyo 2 each ; 2 were also trans-
ferred from Madras and 1 each from Sandoway, Tavoy, and Toungoo.
Statement No. IV gives the trade and occupation of the admissions. Under
the head of cultivation 20 out of the 69 are shown, coolies 14, and of no occupation
7 ; bazaar-sellers 5, 5 occupation unknown, 4 policemen, two ponegyees, and 12
others of various callings.
Statement No. V.—This shows the ages of the inmates who entered the
asylum during the year. Of these the extremes of ages were reached and are as
follows:—
Under 20 years ... ... ... ... ...
From 20 to 40 ... ... ... ... ...
From 40 to 60 ... ... ... ... ...
Above 60 ... ... ... ... ...
4
52
12
1
Mental disorders, as the preceding table and the data of former years reveal,
are to be found mostly in the ages of between 20 and 40, and in explanation of
this divers reasons have been suggested, and to one of these, unquestionably,
must be attributed excessive sexual indulgences.
Statement VI.—The types of insanity are shown herein. Of those treated,
namely, 244, 93 were suffering from acute mania, 13 from chronic mania, 50 from
melancholia, 39 from acute dementia, 4 from chronic dementia, 2 from paralysis
of the insane, 8 from idiotcy, 22 from imbecility, and 13 not insane.
The difference in the classes of insane cases has not materially differed from
these of other periods.
Medical treatment.—Although this would not be the appropriate place to enter
into any lengthened or particular details relative to the more strictly medical or
therapeutic means employed at the asylum, yet for the purposes of medical
statistics the report would be decidedly defective did it contain no allusion to
them. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe that no uniform system of
medical treatment is considered applicable to the various cases that come under
cure, but that a discriminating selection of remedies, according to the physical
indications, is the plan which I endeavour to keep before my view in the treatment
of each case.
It may be stated that severe antiphlogistic or reducing measures are seldom
resorted to, and that it has been found that where blistering and other means of
the same kind have been carried to a great extent before admission, the
recovery has generally been more tedious. In cases however of various forms in
the recent stage, the use of brisk purgatives and aperients, of evaporating lotions
to the head, followed by the administration of extract of conia, potassium bromide,
and chloral has been very frequently attended by decided advantage when the
physical signs of cerebral disturbance have been more marked in the passage from