14
REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1894.
want of attention to detail was apparent. In one of the history sheets received
the description of symptoms characterising the insanity of the patient in question
consisted of the monosyllable " Good " ; in another the signs of insanity were ex-
pressed by the use of the word " Sudden."
It must be admitted that the information supplied to and elicited at the
asylum in respect of the alleged causes of insanity is on the whole meagre.
Lunatics found wandering in Rangoon by the police are sometimes sent in with-
out any more light being thrown on their antecedents than is conveyed by the
word " Unknown "—name, age, occupation, place of abode, all is " unknown." As
mental improvement takes place the blanks are filled in, but there are at the pre-
sent time five lunatics in the asylum for whom names are wanted,
71. Statement VII of the year of report is less satisfactory than is usually
the case, because of the transfer to the asylum from the jail, at the close of the
year, of 62 criminals, the alleged cause of whose insanity there has been no time
to trace.
72. Although the production of insanity has been in four cases attributed
to ganja, it seems probable that in at least two of these drink and debauchery
played a by no means unimportant part in determining its onset.
73. A highly-educated Burman was admitted with religious mania of an acute
type. It appeared he had for sometime previously been entertaining as a guest
in his house an American female theosophist whose religious representations
had exercised an extraordinary influence over him. Although he had recently
lost considerable sums of money, it seems probable that his mania was of a purely
religious origin, for in the asylum he was perpetually casting out devils and giving
expression, by signs and symbols, to other religious aberrations.
74. Statement VIII, showing the return of sick, &c.—The state of health
of the lunatics during the past year would have been satisfactory had there not
occurred among them two outbreaks of epidemic disease, the first of which was
influenza and the second beriberi.
75. The total number of admissions to hospital was 275, of which 49 were
contributed by influenza and 78 by beriberi. By deducting the admissions
occurring from the presence of these epidemics from the total number, the result
obtained is 148, which represents the number of admissions from diseases nor-
mally present in the asylum.
The number is not large, and it may be noticed that admissions for diseases
of a strictly preventible type, such as affections of the respiratory and alimentary
tracts, were comparatively few.
The freedom of the lunatics from the most common ailments of the lungs,
such as pneumonia and bronchitis, is very gratifying ; as is also the success which
attended the treatment of patients admitted into hospital with dysentery.
76. The following table gives the number of admissions to hospital and
deaths during the past three years:—
Year.
1892 ... ... ... ...
1893 ... ... ... ...
1894 ... ... ... ...
Daily average
strength.
265
255
261
Admissions.
104
179
275
Deaths.
27
43
26
Percentage of
deaths to daily
average strength.
10.2
16.9
10.0
The total mortality was 26, but if the 7 deaths which took place from
the epidemic of beriberi are deducted, the mortality, in relation to the strength,
becomes reduced from 10.0 to 7.3 per cent.
77. One death took place from rupture of the spleen. The deceased was
at work in the compound of the General Hospital, which is about a mile from the