8
REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1894.
the sane, is even more detrimental to the insane, every endeavour is made to
provide the lunatics with suitable occupations.
43. Apart from the large number employed as asylum servants, the exten-
sive area of the asylum premises affords ample scope for gardening operations,
of which full advantage is taken. Patients incapable of performing work of
any kind are led out of the various sheds twice daily and given walking exercise
in the open air.
44. When efforts were made in the early part of the year to encourage the
extra-mural employment of the lunatics, it was found it could not be extended,
not for the reason that there was no work for the men, but because there were no
more men for the work. Permission was subsequently obtained to employ, under
certain conditions, some of the criminal, as well as the civil, lunatics extra-
murally.
45. No kind of mechanical restraint, setting aside confinement in cells,
has been made use of, and the asylum does not possess a single implement or
garment of restraint. Strong-rooms lined with or made of wood, such as exist
in the Civil General Hospital, were on two or three occasions felt the want of,
nevertheless no lunatic hanged himself during the year of report or suffered from
self-inflicted injuries of more than a trifling kind. One lunatic, who subsequently
recovered his sanity and was discharged from the asylum, contrived to drop down
a well, but he was rescued without being any the worse for his suicidal act.
46. Medical treatment.—The importance of treating the bodily ailments
of the lunatics was not overlooked. An endeavour made to reduce the preva-
lence of intestinal worms by a general issue of santonine met with considerable
success.
47. Sixteen lunatics were forcibly fed during the year, of whom 10 were
living at the close of the year. The lives of 5 out of the 10 were probably saved
by forcible feeding.
The aggregate number of meals given forcibly was 185. One patient, who
was living at the end of the year, had been forcibly fed 50 times.
These figures relate to patients who were forcibly fed with the naso-œso-
phageal tube and funnel. The stomach-pump was not used.
48. A lunatic with an abdominal tumour was subjected to an exploratory
laparatomy by which it was found that the swelling, which it was hoped could be
removed, consisted of a large and indurated mass of tubercle.
49. Tonics and sedatives were employed as heretofore, whenever necessary,
and hypnotics were given with a less sparing hand. The register of hypnotic
drugs used shows that 491 administrations of hypnotic drugs took place. Paralde-
hyde heads the list with 234, then comes hyoscyamine, given hypodermically, with
151, sulphonal is the next with 81, and chloralamid last with 25. Hydrate of
chloral was not used. Paraldehyde was found to act better than any of the
other of the hypnotics employed, but the effect produced by it was not so lasting
as with hyoscyamine.
50. An iron bath in which a person can recline, purchased early in the year,
has been constantly used with advantage to the patients.
51. Escapes.—There were 9 escapes during the year, 7 from within the
asylum and 2 from among lunatics extra-murally employed. There was no bad
escape. The wall which surrounds the asylum premises is not a formidable obstacle
to escape, as it is only 7 feet high. Seven of the men were civil insanes, while
one, whose name is Nga Maung, was a criminal.
Nga Maung was perfectly sane and had for some time previously to his
escape been employed in different parts of the asylum as an Overseer. He was
under orders to be released on security, and he would, in six days from the date
on which he escaped, have been set at liberty. He was frequently visited by his
sister, the wife of a police constable in Rangoon. His escape can only be explain-
ed on the assumption that the necessary security bond was not forthcoming.
That he was not re-arrested by the police was a remarkable feature in the case.
52. In connection with these escapes two warders were dismissed from the
service of the asylum, one absconded, while the others at fault were fined.