4
REPORT ON THE RANGOON LUNATIC ASYLUM FOR THE YEAR 1893.
ned. When the Chief Commissioner inspected the Asylum in June 1893 he
pointed out that the hospital accommodation was both inadequate and defective,
and he determined that a new hospital should be forthwith built. I am unable
to say why no demand for this urgently necessary reform had been made at an
earlier date ; but I am competent to state that many years ago the use of the
hospital was abandoned and the building suffered to remain empty. At the
period to which I refer the hospital was held in one of the civil male insane cot-
tages. Two of these cottages were set apart for the purpose, and the sick were
removed, day after day, from one cottage to the other.
In concluding this notice of the Asylum buildings it is to be observed that
the additions being made to the Asylum do not provide for any of the wants to
which I have drawn attention. On the contrary, these wants will grow more
acute in proportion to the increase of the Asylum population.
The province of Burma contains, I believe, the most extensive jail to be
found in the eastern dominions of the British Empire, and it now stands in a fair
way of securing the distinction of also possessing the largest lunatic asylum in
the whole of India.
Accommodation.—The accommodation the Asylum affords does not appear
to have been correctly shown in former reports, and the figures given have con-
sequently been misleading.
For many years past the accommodation has been set down in a footnote to
Statement I, excepting for the year 1885, when the information was omitted.
I have copied out these footnotes from the various statements and have put
them together in a tabular form, whereby the inconsistencies will be readily seen.
Tabulated from footnotes to Statement I.
Year.
1879
1880
1882
1883
1884
1886
1892
Allotted area
per inmate in
square feet.
50
80
80
80
54
50
50
ACCOMMODATION.
Males.
135
219
219
219
228
219
219
Females.
36
36
36
36
36
36
36
Total.
171
255
255
255
264
255
255
Remarks.
Twenty-eight cells for criminals and 10 cells for civils were
constructed in 1880, but 171 and 38 do not make 255.
Two cottages for contagious diseases were built in 1882, cap-
able of accommodating 30 lunatics.
Twenty-two cells for criminals were added in 1884.
N.B.—Years in which no alteration in the figures appears have been omitted.
I am not able to explain how these mistakes have arisen. The error for
1880 is all the more pronounced because in the Chief Commissioner's Resolution
on the Asylum Report for 1879 there occurs the following sentence :—
"The Rangoon Lunatic Asylum has suitable accommodation at present for 171 pa-
tients. Thirty-eight additional cells are under construction, and accommodation will thus
be provided for 209 patients in all."
And in the Resolution on the report for 1889 it is stated—
" On the 31st December 1889 there were 258 patients in confinement or three more
than the Asylum can properly accommodate."
In the following statement I have endeavoured to show what the actual
accommodation of the Asylum is, and I think the results may be accepted as
accurate. It demonstrates that the Asylum is capable of accommodating 292
insanes, consisting of 76 criminal males, 178 civil males, and 38 females of both
classes.