228 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
accept the cause entered in the descriptive roll, and only to make enquiries in
the asylum when no cause had been entered. It cannot be said that even this
practice has been carefully and accurately observed. The copying of the
entries is left to subordinates who sometimes use their own discretion. Thus
Dr. McConaghy, Superintendent of the Poona Asylum, says: "The register is
filled up by the assistant at the time of the lunatic's admission. According to
my idea of asylum practice, the entries must be in accordance with Form C. If
the cause is entered as unknown, it must be so shown in the register. No altera-
tion would be made without the permission of the Magistrate." Yet of the six
cases ascribed to hemp drugs in 1892, there was not one in respect to which the
entry in the register corresponded with that of the descriptive roll as to cause,
and there was nothing on record to explain the discrepancy in any case. Simi-
larly, Dr. Macnamara, Superintendent of the Tezpur Asylum, says: "The cause
is entered in the general register from the police statement, i.e., from the
descriptive roll. We have nothing whatever to do with it. It is entered by the
Overseer in charge of the Asylum, and ought to correspond with the entry of the
descriptive roll." As a matter of fact, eleven of the thirteen cases for 1892
showed entries regarding cause which did not correspond with the descriptive
rolls; and of these 11, no less than 10 were made, not by the Overseer, but by
his subordinate, the jemadar. Besides such errors as these, there are errors
arising from carelessness in the mere copying of the register entries from year
to year. These derive their importance from the fact that they must have been
discovered had any attention been really given in the asylums to this matter of
causation. A striking example may be given from among the old cases in the
Rangoon Asylum. Moung Min Thay was admitted on 25th June 1871. There
has been no improvement in his mental state. There are no papers in his case
except an order from the Magistrate to receive the man "supposed to be in-
sane." The original entry in the case book shows cause as "predisposing
disease of the brain, exciting drinks, and smokes opium;" and it shows the
duration as "probably from birth." It also shows that the man was epileptic.
There is no mention of ganja. The register for 1885 (the first to show causation)
shows "alleged duration" as "congenital," and "alleged cause" as "drink
and opium smoking." The entry "congenital" is continued until 1892, when
it is replaced by a "Do." under the "Not given" of a previous case. In 1886
the "cause" similarly undergoes undesigned alteration. The word "drink" is
replaced by "ganja;" and in 1888 the reference to "opium" is finally dropped.
The case thus became a ganja case, and has been shown as such ever since.
These all may be instances of exceptional carelessness, but as a general rule
it cannot be said that these entries have been made with care. Superintendents
have not attached much importance to them. It has been left to subordinates
to do this work; and that work as a rule has not been carefully supervised. Speak-
ing generally, however, Superintendents have desired that the entries in the
register regarding cause should correspond with those in the descriptive rolls;
and they have believed that their subordinates were making the entries on this
principle.
Some few Superintendents have professed a different method, and have
assumed some responsibility for the entries as to the cause of insanity in their
registers. There are, however, only three Superintendents who held this office in
1892 who profess to have been to any appreciable extent independent of the