( 2 )
5. STATEMENT I.—The total population, 245, is one in excess of the same
total for 1882 and 27 in excess of the mean of the preceding 10 years. The
number cured, 19, is seven less than in 1882 and is also slightly under the mean
of the previous decennial period. The number "discharged otherwise," 24, is
twice as many as the aggregate so disposed of since 1873; and this is accounted
for, I presume, by the transfers to the jail owing to overcrowding as noticed in
the early part of the Superintendent's report. Further particulars concerning
these will be found at Statements II (b) and VII. The daily average strength,
189.08, is 11.83 higher than for the previous year and, with the exception of 1878
and 1879, is the highest for the preceding 10 years. The percentage of morta-
lity to daily average strength is 6.35 compared with 10.72 for 1882 and with
9.49, the mean of the preceding 10 years.
6. STATEMENT II.—Turning to Statement II, which deals exclusively with
criminal lunatics, it will be noticed that their daily average strength, 65.08, some-
what exceeds one-third of the daily average of civils and criminals conjointly, but
that the criminal mortality is but one-quarter, 3, of the total 12. Calculating the
percentage of mortality for the two classes, criminal and non-criminal, on the
daily averages given in Statements I and II for the past 11 years, I find that the
former equals 7.29, the latter 10. One would expect, judging from their different
conditions of life, that the mortality would be greater amongst the criminals.
7. STATEMENT VII.—In this statement are entered the causes assigned for
the intellectual aberration. In the cases of the 189 persons remaining at the end
of 1882 the causes of insanity in 54 are said to be physical, in 69 moral, and
in 66 unknown. In the cases of the 23 criminal admissions the causes are
put down, 4 to physical, 3 to moral, and no less than 16 to unknown ; with the
33 non-criminal admissions the numbers in the same order as the foregoing
are 8, 13, and 12. Ganja, opium, fever and spirits appear to predominate as
physical causes, domestic trouble, grief, and loss of property as moral. Unless
the disease is hereditary, insanity brought about by the latter more readily yields
to treatment.
For the information in this statement the Superintendent is almost entirely
dependent on those who remit lunatics to the asylum, and more careful inquiry
by the police amongst friends or relatives regarding subjects' antecedents would
be of immense service in this connection. Trustworthy information as to cause,
duration, and heredity would assist greatly in prognosis, besides affording valu-
able indications as to treatment.
According to the last census report there were 3,726 insanes in the pro-
vince. Of these 2,266 or, roughly speaking, nearly two-thirds were males and
1,460 females. The disproportion may probably be accounted for, as indicated
in this statement, by the more general operation of the physical causes amongst
men ; but why this disproportion (about 15 males to one female) should become
so exaggerated in the population of the asylum (vide either column 5 or column
9, Statement I for 1883 ) in a country where the two sexes pretty equally share
domestic responsibilities is not easy of explanation.
8. STATEMENT VIII gives most satisfactory evidence of the general
healthiness of the inmates of this institution during the year under review. The
total sick was 98 and the total deaths 12, giving percentages per annum on daily
average population of 51.83 and 6.35; both, but more particularly the first, very
satisfactory. A mortality of less than 7 per cent. is considered in England highly
favourable, and an admission rate to hospital amongst the prisoners over the way
of considerably more than double this would be remarkable for its lowness.
It is unusual to find such diseases as prolapsus ani and dyspepsia entered
as causes of death. The post-mortem records throw no light on the subject, but
in conversation with the Superintendent I ascertained, with reference to the first,
that the prolapse followed some exhausting disorder ( diarrhæa or dysentery) from
which the patient recovered, and that at the time of death this was the most pro-
nounced symptom. It would, I think, have been clearer had the primary cause been
shown. At all the post-mortem examinations, of which there were six during the
year (the relatives of the other six who died demurred), gross intracranial
changes, sufficient to account for the previous mental derangement, were observed.