230 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
to a reasonable belief that it was so." But in his evidence before the Commis-
sion on 22nd January 1894, this officer stated: "My reasonable belief as to
cause was based on reading the papers and seeing whether they showed a probable
cause of insanity, and on enquiry from the lunatic.............I feel very little
confidence in the diagnosis I have made ascribing these cases to hemp drugs."
Stati sti cs are based on the de-
scri pti ve rolls.
516. There is clearly no valid ground in the practice of these three Superintend-
ents for modifying the general statement based on the
frank admission of the great majority of the Superin-
tendents that the entries regarding cause in the registers, and therefore the figures
in annual Statement No. VII, have been based wholly on the descriptive rolls or
similar papers received with the lunatics. This practice has, no doubt, become
established owing to the following considerations. As already stated, many Super-
intendents have recognized these papers as practically the only material they had
for determining cause. They have not had adequate opportunities for making
enquiries themselves. They have had a general impression that the informa-
tion supplied by Magistrates or police was as good as the Government required
for statistical purposes, and they have accepted it accordingly. As a rule
they have regarded this question of cause as one of little or no practical import-
ance. The Government prescribed Statement VII, and pressed to have the
columns filled up; and as a rule the orders were carried out in this somewhat
mechanical way. Surgeon-Major Carruthers, Superintendent at Calicut, per-
haps puts this view in the strongest terms when he says: "My position as
Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum requires me to take charge of insanes
when they are sent in, and retain them until they are fit for discharge. I am
simply keeper and incidentally medical attendant, and not responsible for any
statements and certificates received with the patient so long as they are in
order." The same view is, however, as clearly expressed by Brigade-Surgeon-
Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper when he says: "I do not consider that the ques-
tion of cause is one which affects the treatment of cases. My inquiries there-
fore into cause are of a statistical, not a practical, character. The result will not
affect my treatment of the case." Even to an officer who sees that the know-
ledge of the cause may help him in the treatment of the case, responsibility for
the accuracy of the returns is a very minor matter. Surgeon-Lieutenant-
Colonel Leapingwell (Vizagapatam), for example, says: "The point, of course,
is chiefly one of personal interest to me in the treatment of the case. An entry
was made (in the particular case under discussion) on the papers. I omitted
to alter the register." It is clear then that the medical officers in charge of
asylums have not felt that they have been in any way responsible for the accu-
racy of the figures contained in annual Statement VII regarding causation of
insanity; and that these figures derive no value from the fact that the statement
bears the signature of a medical man; for their value practically depends entirely
on the character of the inquiry in which the information contained in the de-
scriptive roll was in each case collected.
Untrustworthi ness of descri pti ve
rolls.
517. This inquiry is very unequal in its character. The lunatic, before
being sent to the asylum, is for a time under the
observation of the Civil Surgeon. The latter has to
certify to the man's insanity and to the facts which have led to that conclusion.
Sometimes the Civil Surgeon fills up the descriptive roll as well as the medical
certificate. But the more general practice is that he confines his attention to