RESOLUTION
ON THE
REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM
For the year 1878.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner, British Burma, in the Judicial Department,
—No. 192, dated 26th April 1879.
READ—
Annual Report of the Rangoon Lunatic Asylum, 1878.
RESOLUTION.—The Rangoon Lunatic Asylum has now been in existence for
eight years. The total number of lunatics under treatment during the past year was
244,—222 men and 22 women, being an increase of 24 over the number in 1877.
At the beginning of the year there were 184 inmates; 60 were admitted, against
51 in the previous year; 14 patients were discharged as cured (the number
begin larger than last year, but slightly less than the general average), 8 were handed
over to the care of their friends, 4 escaped, and 23 died,—leaving 195 in the
Asylum at the close of the year. The daily average strength was 193, the max-
imum on any one day being 201 and the minimum 184. As the Asylum is only
capable of accommodating 171 patients, allowing suitable space for each, it is
evident that it needs considerable enlargement to meet its increasing requirements.
Sanction has been granted for the construction of 24 new cells for criminal luna-
tics, and 8 for dangerous civil lunatics, and of 2 observation-rooms. These
additions are urgently required, and should be carried out as soon as possible.
2. There were 38 criminal lunatics at the close of 1877, and 49 at the end
of 1878, the admissions being more, and the discharges fewer, than in the previous
year. The insufficiency of accommodation noted in the first paragraph is felt
most seriously in this branch of the Asylum. There are at present only 26 cells,
while the daily average strength of the occupants, without including violent civil
lunatics, was 44. It is therefore inevitable that more than one patient should
occupy a single cell, and, in spite of the precaution taken, of putting apparently
quiet patients together, one fatal case of violence resulted from this enforced
arrangement.
3. Of the total number of admissions, Rangoon contributed more than half.
Thirty-three out of the 60 patients admitted were Burmese and 13 Hindoos. The
percentage of Hindoos (7.8) is even more noticeable than last year, when it
was 3.57. As might be expected, coolies, cultivators, and petty traders supply
the greatest number of patients, the rest being of various callings. Forty-five
out of the whole number admitted were between the ages of 20 and 40.
4. The types of insanity treated are classed as follows : acute mania, 94
cases; chronic mania, 25 ; melancholia, 35 ; acute dementia, 35 ; chronic dementia,
4; paralysis of the insane, 6 ; idiocy, 10 ; imbecility, 34. One patient is returned as
not insane, but suffering from general paralysis. Some of those suffering from
acute mania were very violent; but only one serious accident, before noted, is
reported.
5. The causes of insanity are put down as ascertained in 165, and unknown
in 79, cases. Considering the average intelligence of the classes from which the
patients are drawn, it is not surprising that some difficulty is experienced in
ascertaining with any degree of accuracy the real causes of insanity among them;
and it is probable that complete reliance cannot be placed upon the statistics given
under this head. Of the cases whose origin is supposed to be known, 88 arose
from physical, and 77 from moral, causes. Of the former, 23 are ascribed to
ganja, 10 to opium, and 9 to spirits. Of the ganja cases, 3 patients recovered
or were otherwise discharged; and of those suffering from the effects of opium, one
recovered. Of the moral causes, grief, domestic trouble, and loss of property