REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1899.
7
19 Statements Nos. III, IV and V—call for no special comment.
20. Statements Nos. VI and VII—show the types of insanity of the pa-
tients at present in the Asylum.
The commonest types of lunacy met with at the Asylum are mania and melan-
cholia, the former disease accounting for 51 per cent. and the latter for 27 per
cent. of the total population of patients. These figures approximate closely to
those obtained from the returns of the Lunatic Asylums in England and Scot-
land, which are roughly 56 per cent. for mania and 30 per cent. for melancholia.
The percentage as obtained from the Rangoon Asylum is therefore slightly
lower than those of England and Scotland, but in the latter countries it is pro-
bable that the onset of lunacy is more quickly recognized and treatment in Asy-
lums resorted to more early than in this country, and so the totals there get
swelled by the admission of a greater number of slight cases. General paralysis
of the insane provides but one case; this is in accordance with the experience of
experts in lunacy, who state that this form of insanity is exceedingly rare amongst
Asiatics.
General paralysis of the insane appears to be caused by any mode of life in
which the brain is unduly stimulated, more especially when combined with the
effects of excesses in drinking. The rural Burmans will naturally escape these
causes, and though the Burmans living in the large towns do drink at times heavily
and also are undoubtedly widely affected with syphilis, they do not, I think, exer-
cise their brains unduly, there being no such acute struggle for existence such as
occurs in England.
The number of recoveries are very low, being only 7 per cent. for mania and
3 per cent. for melancholia, but the majority of cases admitted into the Asylum
have, as a rule, been ill a long time, the relations or police only taking action to get
them restrained in the Asylum when they have become quite unmanageable.
Cases of this nature must necessarily have an unfavourable effect on the ratio of
recoveries to admissions. Considerable pains were taken during the year to obtain
more accurate information as to the probable cause of insanity amongst those
patients who were sent to the Asylum with this heading filled in "unknown."
Thirty-seven communications were made on this subject with regard to civil luna-
tics, but only in seven cases was any further information obtained.
The cases of four criminal lunatics were also the subject of correspondence,
but no further information throwing any light on the predisposing cause of in-
sanity was obtainable.
Out of 117 lunatics admitted during the year, in 57 cases facts pointing to
the cause of insanity were ascertained equalling 49 per cent, of the admissions.
In 1898, out of 88 admissions the cause of insanity was discoverable in 30 or 34
per cent. Out of 26 criminal lunatics, the number of cases in which the cause
of insanity was unknown was 7 compared with 20 out of a total of 32 criminal
lunatics in the previous year.
21. Injuries.—The following is a short account of the injuries received by
lunatics in the Asylum during the year:—
(1) Nga Shwe Tu, age 69, was struck on the head by a Madrasi patient and received a
slight scalp wound which rapidly healed.
(2) Mrs. E. C. (Armenian) received a slight wound of the scalp by being struck on the
head by another female lunatic with a stick. Both these patients were irritable, and
had a slight quarrel.
(3) Bila received a slight wound of the forehead, having been struck by another
patient (a Mussulman), who used his iron plate as a weapon. The assault was causeless
and the injury healed in a few days.
(4) Nga Po was admitted with a lacerated scalp wound caused by a blow from a
brick thrown by another insane. No reason was given for the assault. The man was a
month in hospital and was discharged cured.
(5) Chundraya was struck on the head with a stick by another patient and received a
lacerated scalp wound which soon healed.
(6) Ma Pu Le (female) aged 45, slipped and fell fracturing her right femur. She was
three months in hospital and thoroughly recovered, and can now walk as well as ever.
(7) Nga Tun Tha fell accidentally, receiving a wound of forehead which soon healed.
(8) Nga Maung received a slight contused wound of the left thigh, the result of the
fall of a piece of timber accidentally.