REPORT
ON
THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM
FOR THE TRIENNIUM 1903—05.
Statement
No. I.
1. Accommodation and admissions.—This Asylum has accommodation for
427 inmates, at 50 superficial feet per head. On the 1st of January 1905 there
remained 390 males and 55 females under treatment. During the year there
was a total of 122 males and 18 females admitted for the first time, whilst 10 males
were re-admitted. The total admissions, therefore, were 10 less than during 1904,
but were 21 more than in 1903. As a result, the actual daily average strength in
1905 was 27.45 above that of 1903, and 2.25 above that of 1904. It will, however,
be seen that, whilst in 1903 accommodation of the asylum was taxed to its full
capacity, both in 1904 and 1905, it was considerably exceeded ; and this it must
be remembered is a condition that did not exist at intervals, but was in oper-
ation throughout the year. In jails, where the population does not possess the
physical deterioration and undue disregard of personal hygiene frequently found
in insanes, it has been found that any tendency to overcrowding, in relation to the
small cubic space of 600 feet allowed, at once exhibits inimical influence on the
general health. Further, in this asylum shelter and accommodation for inmates
during the day-time is so scanty that it is not possible at all times to ensure that wards
have been used entirely for sleeping purposes. Under the circumstances, the neces-
sity for increased accommodation is self-evident, and it is satisfactory for me to be
able to record that plans and estimates for a new asylum are under preparation.
Not only is a new asylum requisite, with reference to the mere air space available,
but the wooden nature of the present buildings and their general design in respect
to cleanliness when dealing with an insane population, leaves much to be desired.
Nevertheless, the death-rate of the year reckoned upon the daily average strength
although so great as 7.27 per cent. does not compare badly with the rates existing
in past years in certain Lunatic Asylums in India, and, much to the credit of the
Superintendent, is 4.46 below the rate of 1904 and 1.4 below that for 1903.
Statements
Nos. I, II and
III.
2. Religion, cures, and criminals.—In dealing with the population of the
Rangoon Asylum the Superintendent has an unusual task in respect to languages.
Thus, of the admissions during the year, 25 were Hindus, which bespeaks an
extraordinary diversity of languages in use from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin,
whilst 13 were Mahomedans and 105 of other races, amongst whom were 6 Karens,
11 Chinese, 3 Shans, 4 Arakanese, 2 Palaungs, 1 Kachin and the rest Burmese.
In so far as the moral treatment of patients is concerned (a matter which must bulk
largely if success is to be secured in the management of lunatics), not only is know-
ledge of patients' languages-required, but also of the sentiments they are guided
by. It must be confessed that the Superintendent who is confronted with a
Chinaman recently arrived from paddy cultivation from a village near Tientsin or
an Uriya from the hill tracts of Vizagapatam, has before him a difficult task in
attempting suggestive moral treatment—more especially as the attendants upon
the patients (warders) are but a common class of Indian coolies. I am therefore not
disposed to regard a falling off in the rate of cure for 1905 of 3.13 per cent., when
compared with 1903, and 9.75 per cent., when compared with 1904, as necessarily
denoting a decrease of medical skill, but rather as a resultant having some relation
to that part of asylum treatment represented by removal of the patient from his
previous environment having regard to the plea of the Superintendent that his
cure rate would have been much better had he not been compelled, with reference
to overcrowding, to hand patients over to the care of their friends when merely in