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circumspection must be used with a body of patients whose safe custody is of the
greatest importance, especially when it is recollected that the crimes which a
large proportion of them had committed are of a very grave nature; while in some
other cases the degree of insanity of the inmates has either been greatly mitigated,
or is less obvious to us than to the judges whose verdicts have consigned them
to a lunatic asylum.
Statement No. III.—In this are classified the religion and the sex of the
admissions and the different districts from which they came. Thirty-five were
Burmans, 21 Hindus, two Mussulmen and two East Indians. Moulmein sent eight,
Henzada three, Paungdè two, Rangoon 30, Prome four, Akyab two, Shwegyin
one, Toungoo one, Ma-ubin one, Bassein two, Thayetmyo four, Kyaukpyu one,
and Mandalay one.
Statement No. IV.—No remarks to offer.
Statement No. V.— Taken according to age it appears that the majority of
males and females were admitted between the ages of 20 and 40, next between
40 and 60, and the same at ages under 20 and at ages between 40 and 60. It is
known that the liability to insanity in all countries is nearly twice as great from
20 to 40 as from 40 to 60, and much more than twice as great as at any age subse-
quent to 60.
Statement No. VI.—The types of insanity are shown herein. Of those treated,
namely, 250, 106 were suffering from acute mania, six from chronic mania, 58
from melancholia, 38 from acute dementia, two from chronic dementia, two from
paralysis of the insane, seven idiocy, 16 imbecility, and 15 not insane. These
sane persons are generally former inmates who had been sent to their districts to
be tried, are acquitted on the grounds of insanity, and sent back to the asylum.
A still more noticeable point in this statement, the admissions show large
increase on the former year under the heads of acute mania and melancholia.
Four cases were admitted suffering from acute mania brought on by intoxicating
drinks, and these are becoming more frequent yearly. These cases are generally
received from the seaport towns, and the majority from Rangoon.
Each type of insanity contributed to the total asylum population in the fol-
lowing proportion:
Acute mania, 42.4 per cent. Of these 11.32 recovered and 9.43 died; chronic
mania, 2.4 per cent.; under it none recovered and none died; melancholia, 23.2
per cent.; 18.97 per cent. recovered and 12.07 per cent. died. Acute dementia,
15.2 per cent.; from it 2.63 per cent. recovered and 5.26 per cent. died ; chronic
dementia, .8 per cent.; paralysis of the insane .8 per cent., of which 50 per cent.
died; idiocy, 2.8 per cent.; imbecility, 6.4 per cent.; none recovered and 18.75
per cent. died; not insane, 5.6 per cent.; 28.57 recovered, or, more properly
speaking, none entered under heading otherwise as having been transferred to the
jail.
Melancholia is very common amongst Burmans; males in my experience are
more subject to it than females.
It will be seen that the highest number of recoveries occurred in acute mania
and melancholia, and the highest death-rates were registered in order of frequency
under acute mania, melancholia, imbecility, acute dementia, and paralysis of the
insane. It will also be noticed that 28.8 per cent. of the total asylum popula-
tion suffered from insanity in its more chronic and least curable forms. This fact
may be accepted as explanatory of the comparatively small proportion of recov-
eries ; the inference is, I think, unfavourable to the class of cases sent to the
asylum rather than to the repute of the system of treatment pursued. The policy
of finding accommodation for all lunatics wandering at large, whether they are
dangerous or not, creates a miscellaneous crowd, of which comparatively only
a small proportion can be considered susceptible of cure or radical improvement.
Medical treatment.—As at all institutions of the kind the treatment pursued
here is moral and medical, and in the majority of cases we have to trust chiefly to
the former.
Very many patients require only early removal from their ordinary surround-
ings to get well. All authorities on insanity assert that early treatment is fol-
lowed by a greatly increased chance of cure, and this should be impressed on the
people ; too often Burman lunatics are kept as long as they are quiet, and not