2
" there is a reasonable presumption that a person is insane, he or she is at once
" sent (here) for treatment. There happens to be a Lunatic Asylum and the
" patient may as well (if not better) be treated there as in an ordinary hospital.
" It is always provided," he adds, " that I see the cases first and that I have
" grounds for considering the Asylum the more suitable place for them." In
another passage he records : " We have striven much to keep down the Asylum
" population, but find it impossible to reduce it furtherf. We are more particular
" now in admitting patients : none are received who are not dangerous to them-
" selves or others : or who are capable of taking care of themselves or have re
"latives who can look after them or who do not afford a prospect of cure from the
"special treatment to be obtained in a Lunatic Asylum."
From these extracts it
appears that the Jubbulpore Lunatic Asylum is treated as a branch of the
general hospital into which patients suffering from alienation of mind are admit-
ted at the discretion of the Superintendent ; and that even in the case of such
lunatics as are referred to in Sections 4 and 5 of Act 36 of 1858, the Superin-
tendent is guided by his own judgment as to sanctioning or refusing admis-
sion. It seems hardly necessary to point out that this view of the uses of an
Asylum established under Act 36 of 1858, is not justified by either law or rule ;
and the Chief Commissioner requests that you will at once issue instructions
that when persons are brought to a Civil Surgeon for treatment on account of
insanity, they should be treated in the hospital, or their friends should be
directed to apply to the Civil Court. He takes this opportunity of impressing
on all Superintendents of Asylums, that no person can be admitted under an
order recorded either by a 1st Class Magistrate or by the principal Civil Court
of the district unless that order purports to be made under Act 36 of 1858 :
and that they should refuse to admit persons who are forwarded for " observa-
tion" or temporary custody only. Such cases as that reported in paragraph 5
of Dr. Brake's report, viz. the retention in the Asylum for 18 days of a person
accused of a criminal offence who was supposed to be insane but was in reality
sane, should not be allowed to recur.
4. While on the subject of the legal conditions which govern the admis-
sion of persons into Lunatic Asylums, notice may be taken of a remark made
by the Superintendent of the Nagpur Asylum, in paragraph 15 of his report, on
the subject of recovering payment for the maintenance of a lunatic. He says
that in one case " the Commissioner ruled that the Government was not justified
" in compelling a father to pay for the maintenance of a son of adult age whom
" the Committee of visitors refused to make over to the father's care on account
" of the dangerous character of his disease." It is not stated whether the lunatic
was confined under the order of a Magistrate or under the order of a Civil
Court ; or under what circumstances the Commissioner made a ruling on the
matter : but it may be as well to point out that Government can only be relieved
of the expense of maintaining a lunatic if, in the case of the order for admission
having been signed by the Civil Judge, the Judge has at the time when he signed
the order made a separate order for the recovery of the lunatic's maintenance
(Clause 4 of Section 8, and Section 14 of Act 36 of 1858); or if, in the case of
the order of admission having been signed by a Magistrate under Section 4 or 5
of the Act, the same Magistrate has subsequently moved the Civil Court and
obtained a similar order for the recovery of maintenance (Sections 14, 15 of
Act 36 of 1858). The law being thus clear, it is difficult to understand how any
necessity for a " ruling" could have arisen.
5 The classification of lunatics according to their religion, their occupations
and their ages reveals nothing that has not before been noticed. In paragraphs
162 and 163 of the Census Report for 1881 it is noted that in this Province, as
in Europe, insanity is most common between the ages of 20 and 50 : and that
Hindus and aboriginals, constituting as they do the bulk of the population of this
Province, furnish the largest number of lunatics, who are mostly of the lower
orders. Ganja, which, as stated in paragraph 159 of the same report, is preferred
as an intoxicant by the lower classes on account of its being cheaper than opium,
holds, as usual, the first place among the causes of insanity. As remarked by
you, it is difficult to understand the principle of classification of " causes" followed
in some instances; and there is something particularly puzzling in the
remark made by the Superintendent of the Jubbulpore Asylum at p. 7 of the