( 3 )
the vicinity of dwellings and wells, without endangering health or polluting the
water-supply, and, if properly gone about, with little or no discomfort or un-
pleasantness. On a piece of garden land in front of the Rangoon Central Jail,
measuring 9½ acres, besides enormous quantities of organic refuse of every de-
scription from the prison cook-house and work-yard, some 30,000 or 40,000 tons
of human excreta—equal to a layer all over 3 feet deep—have been disposed of
within the past 30 years, and still the subsoil (a ferruginous sandy clay), where un-
disturbed, is free from discoloration or other indication of pollution. Liebig very
many years ago, by analysing the discharge from subsoil drainage-pipes, showed
how insignificant was the loss, even during heavy rain, of salts and organic matter
from fields recently manured, and the experience will be unique if a sample of
water taken during the south-west monsoon from the well " dug in land thickly
studded with shallow excreta trenches " gives results on analysis differing to any
marked extent from those obtained by examination in the same way during the
dry season. I have discussed this subject at some length, as the tendency in
Burma during recent years, the instructions to the contrary by the Government
of India notwithstanding, has been to abandon the use of human excreta and to
ignore the advantages of sewage farming.
(f) During 1871, the first year the asylum was opened, the daily average
population of civil and criminal inmates was 42 and 39; during 1893 they aver-
aged 173.81 and 80.93 respectively, but, through insufficient accommodation in
the asylum, an average of 63 criminals has, during the year under review, been
detained in the Rangoon Central Jail. Except between 1880 and 1885 these
averages have risen fairly regularly year after year, and they, in my opinion,
will continue to do so. The conclusion " that the number of civil insanes in the
asylum is not likely to undergo any large increase " because " during the last four
years there has been no increase in the yearly number of civil insanes admitted "
seems erroneous. The population depends on two factors, the number admitted
and the number discharged (by death or otherwise), and had the mortality
amongst this class in 1891 and 1893 been normal, the population remaining on
the last day of the latter year would have exceeded that for 1892, as the popula-
tion remaining at the end of 1892 exceeds that remaining at the end of every
previous year. The civil insanes averaged 93, 124, and 174 in 1873, 1883, and
1893, and as chronic cases must accumulate with time, still higher averages may
be expected.
(g) The observations under Statements III to VII call for very little comment.
If the headings of Statement III are considered insufficiently comprehensive, I
presume there would be no objection to adding another column showing
" Burmese" separate from "Other castes," but the information may be equally
well given in a foot-note. Entries under " Other castes" have in previous
years been rare, as remarked by the Superintendent, but one can readily believe
that the admission to the asylum of persons belonging to classes other than
Burmese, European, Hindu, Mahomedan or East Indian, would be a rare event.
The causes of insanity are frequently very obscure, even when the antecedents of
the patients are well known. It is not easy for experts to say whether indulgence
in drink, gunja or opium is a symptom of incipient madness or a cause; it may
be either. Reliance cannot be placed on the statements of casual acquaintances,
and less still on information afforded by the police in regard to wandering lunatics.
(h) The percentage of mortality for the decennium 1872-1881 averaged 8.93,
and for 1882-1891, 9.81. It was 10.20 in 1892, and in 1893 it attained to 16.88,
the highest rate yet recorded. The death-rate amongst the civil insanes was over
20 per cent., whilst that amongst the criminal insanes was less than 10 per cent.
Amongst a daily average of 63 criminal lunatics confined in the Rangoon Central
Jail 8 deaths occurred, which equals a mortality of 12.7 per cent. The asylum
daily average sick-rate (18.17) was also high, and altogether the year appears to
have been exceptional. Bowel complaints (13), phthisis (10), general debility
and anæmia (7), pneumonia (3), and epilepsy and paralysis (2 each), account for
37 of a total of 43 deaths; whilst of 192 admissions to hospital, bowel complaints
account for 45, intermittent fever for 25, and general debility and anæmia for 24.
It may be noted that 8 of those who died during 1893 came under treatment