Annual Report on the the Nagpur Lunatic Asylum,
for the year 1884.
STATEMENT I.
The Berar Asylum having been closed in July under orders of the
Government of India, 28 males and 2 females were transferred to Nagpur; an
unusual increase is therefore shown in the number of admissions with reference
to previous years. 27 males were admitted on the 27th of July, and 1 male and
2 females on subsequent dates; 12 were criminals : of the whole 2 were lepers,
and 9 practised such extremely filthy habits that it was necessary to confine
them separately for a time; constant talking to and the behaviour of Nagpur
lunatics has been the means of some improvement; six were very troublesome.
The want of space in Berar necessitated probably the admission of bad cases only.
2. Twenty-two males and 2 females were admitted from the Central Prov-
inces and 3 were re-admitted, total 27. The histories of those re-admitted are
these : Govinda, accused of assault, was considered fit to stand his trial ; he was
therefore tried, and was acquitted on the ground of insanity, but as his friends
declined to take charge of him he was sent back to the Asylum. Derha Gond
was considered also fit to make his defence, but on arrival at Raipur, as on two
previous occasions, he relapsed into his former state of insanity, and so was
re-transferred to the Asylum. Shaik Turab, received from the Nagpur Jail in
July 1883, was sent back in July 1884, but having again relapsed into his former
condition he was re-transferred to the Asylum in December.
3. Altogether 174 came under treatment; and of these, fifteen were dis-
charged, thus: 3 males and 2 females cured, 2 males improved, and one not
improved, made over to their friends ; 2 escaped ; 2 were transferred to the Nag-
pur Jail improved, and 3 were sent to stand their trial : 2 of the last and
one transferred to jail were re-admitted within the year.
Five males and one
female died ; one of the men was in a bad state on admission, his friends tied him
by the elbows and ankles so tightly that the parts were enormously swollen : on
admission they sloughed and suppurated so profusely that he sank 22 days
afterwards ; one died from diarrhœa, a thin wretched woman, who had been ailing a
long time ; one died from dysentery, a Berar lumatic admitted in bad health ; one
from bronchitis ; one from pneumonia, and one died in an epileptic fit. One
hundred and fifty-three remained in the Asylum at the close of the year, or the
largest number ever housed there.
4. The report for 1874, page 2, shows the Asylum accommodation as it
then existed or was utilized, and so before admitting the Berar lunatics it
became necessary to remodel the " open recreation ward " there alluded to,
and at the same time it was thought necessary to improve the ventilation in all
those wards to be henceforth occupied. Built many years ago for the use of a
Battery of Native Artillery, the gunshed, sick horse hospital and subsidiary
buildings, as harness and guard-rooms, Sergeants Quarters, &c., were hastily con-
verted and utilized as an Asylum in 1864. But great need for improvement in
various ways now existed, and so the following works were sanctioned. I take
the buildings as they appear in the report for 1874 quoted.
5. The " main dormitory " and No. " 2 " which accommodated 25 men
were formed into one ward by the removal of a cross wall, the narrow wood-
barred openings and panel doors which obstructed ventilation were removed,
and were replaced by wider iron-barred openings and gates, a projecting night
latrine with wide barred openings was added. Similar iron-barred openings and
gates were fixed in No. 3, also a similar night latrine added ; Nos. 4 and 5 being
too close and unsuitable, and No. 6 being simply an open veranda and so unsafe,
were abandoned as dormitories. The " recreation ward," which was formerly
the gunshed, being closed at one side and perfectly open at the other, was made
secure by fixing bars in its wide openings at the south side, protected by a wide
veranda, its ventilation was improved by fixing barred windows in the north wall,
and a night latrine similar to those already described was constructed there.
One end of this ward was formerly partitioned off as a store room ; this has been