REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1893.
3
shows that there exists a need for a suitably constructed and favourably situated
observation ward.
There are no cells in the Asylum for the confinement of violent female insanes,
and consequently, when any of the female lunatics become uproarious, they
have to be taken into the civil male enclosure and confined in the cells provided
for turbulent males. The matter was represented to the Managing Committee
at the last monthly meeting.
The Asylum is not provided with any strong-rooms, and, although cells are,
in a sense, strong-rooms, they are not suitable places for the confinement of insane
persons bent on self-destruction. The most suitable kind of strong-room for this
country is to be seen in the General Hospital, where there are two such rooms.
The walls should be 10 feet high and lined on the inside with polished planks,
very accurately set; on two sides of the room the walling should be cut away at
the bottom for a height of one foot from the floor, and the space so made closed
with an iron grating. The inside of the door should be lined in a similar manner
to the walls, so that the whole interior of the strong-room should, excepting for
the grated openings, present a perfectly smooth and even surface.
The requirements of the Asylum in this direction can economically be sup-
plied in either of the two following ways : —
(a) By making the necessary alterations to some of the existing cells.
(b) By converting the observation cells referred to in a preceding
paragraph and now not used by the lunatics, into suitable strong-
rooms.
Padded rooms have, I believe, been found to fail in this country, because the
difficulty of procuring materials for padding that will withstand the effects of the
climate has not yet been overcome.
The urgent wants of the Asylum then in regard to additional buildings
are:—
(1) More shed accommodation for the protection and confinement of
the lunatics during the day (vide remarks under mortality).
(2) An observation ward for supposed lunatics sent to the Asylum for
medical observation.
(3) Some cells for violent and unruly females.
(4) A few strong-rooms for insanes with suicidal tendencies.
The Asylum is at the present time undergoing extensive and important
changes. For some time past it has been felt necessary to provide asylum ac-
commodation for the large number of criminal insanes now imprisoned in the
Rangoon Jail. Whether this accommodation should be found by building a
second provincial lunatic asylum or by enlarging the present one has been de-
cided in favour of the latter alternative; hence the explanation of the extensive
additions now in progress to this Asylum.
Through the courtesy of Mr. Coode, the Executive Engineer in charge of
the works, I am able to explain of what these additions consist and to append
to this report a ground plan of the whole of the Asylum buildings as they will
exist when the additions are completed :—
(1) A double-storied block of cells for 48 criminal lunatics.
(2) A story to the existing single-storied block for 28 criminal lunatics.
(3) Constructing three worksheds (50'×20'), two for male criminals
and one for females. (The female workshed has already been
completed and is in use.)
(4) Extending the existing enclosure for criminals by a wall 10 feet
high to take in the new block of cells and worksheds.
(5) Extending the existing block of 10 cells in the civil enclosure by
10 more cells and building 20 additional cells in a separate block.
(6) Building cells for six Europeans.
(7) Enclosing the whole of the outlying ground by a wall 7 feet high.
These remarks on the Asylum buildings would be incomplete without a re-
ference to the new Asylum Hospital, an edifice, however, which is not yet plan-