232 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
This distrust of the descriptive roll is intensified when the source of the
information is considered. If the police think it worth while, or find it possible
and convenient, to make anything of the nature of an inquiry, they find that
they have to be satisfied with the very poorest material. Sometimes, as shown
above, it is the statement of the lunatic himself while still insane that is recorded,
not only as to history and habits, but also even as to the cause of his insanity.
Often, as in the case of garden coolies in Assam or wandering mendicants all
over India, it is the statements of mere casual acquaintances who know little of
the lunatic's habits and nothing of his past history or of that of his family.
Even when friends are found from whom inquiry can be made, they are generally
of the most ignorant and unintelligent type. It is from the classes of such a
type that most of the inmates of our asylums are taken. It is very rare indeed
to find one of the higher and more intelligent classes. The ignorant and unedu-
cated persons who ascribe a child's epilepsy to his having accidently touched
the painted stone that represents the village god while playing under the sacred
tree, or a fit of insanity to the attack and possession of a bhút or village ghost,
who know nothing of causality, except in the most ordinary affairs of home or
agricultural life, beyond the mere association of coincidence, who believe in no
cause which they do not see except witchcraft, whose powers of observation are
quite unexercised and undeveloped: such persons must form most unpromis-
ing material even for the most patient and intelligent enquirers to work on. The
information gleaned from them by such agency as has been above described
must be of the most incomplete and unsatisfactory character. It is not surpris-
ing that moral causes of insanity, being much less palpable than physical causes,
should sometimes be overlooked. A much more surprising fact is the ignoring
of many physical causes. Dr. Wise, then Superintendent of the Dacca Asylum,
gave a remarkable illustration of this in his report for 1872: "It is a curious
circumstance that in Bengal insanity is never traced to blows on the head,
which in Europe is a not infrequent cause. This is the more surprising, as there
are few races, I believe, who so commonly have marks of blows on their heads
as Bengalis. Out of 190 males in the asylum on 1st January last, 57 (or 30 per
cent.) had more or less extensive scars or cuts or contusions on the head.
In a considerable proportion the blow must have been so severe as to have
caused violent concussion of the brain. Yet in the records of this asylum there
is no instance of insanity attributed to this cause."
Finally, the distrust of the descriptive roll must be further intensified by
the consideration of the pressure brought to bear on subordinates to supply
information as to cause. An illustration of this may be found as early as 1863
in the Resolution of the Government of Bengal on the Asylum Reports for 1862.
And a striking illustration of the effect of this pressure is found in the Dullunda
Asylum returns for the following year (1863), in which the cause in several cases
dating from the year 1857 and onwards was altered from "unknown" to "ganja
smoking." The same pressure is still brought to bear on those responsible for
the entries of cause. Surgeon-Major-General Turnbull, the head of the Medical
Department in Bombay, says: "There is a column in Statement VII headed
"Unknown" which is intended for the entry of cases in which the cause has not
been ascertained with reasonable accuracy. If this column was largely used,
I should think it would be a matter of censure on the person on whom the re-
sponsibility for inquiry rests." This demand for much information where little