ANNUAL REPORT ON LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
11
Home Department, dated 31st July 1895, the whole of the columns under moral
causes have been shown under one heading ' moral causes' without any attempt
at particularization. All the Superintendents strongly mention the difficulties they
have to put up with in finding out the proper causes of insanity in each case partly
owing to the inaccurate and unreliable nature of the history of the cases sent to
them by Magistrates and some medical men.
7. Criminal population and their sub-divisions.—In the Vizagapatam
Asylum the same man who was admitted as a criminal lunatic last year was released
after a security had been taken from his friends, but a few days after that he was
brought back again suffering from mania and was transferred to the Madras
Asylum. In the Madras Asylum at the beginning of the year there were 159
criminal insanes and 45 were admitted during the year, making a total of 204.
Of these IS were discharged, transferred, &c, 26 died and 160 remained at the end
of the year—vide Statement II.
The high mortality amongst this class is accounted for by the epidemic of
cholera in 1894 and 1895. There were no criminal lunatics at Calicut during the
year.
8. Hospital accommodation. — In the Vizagapatam Asylum there was
accommodation for 13 males, but none for females. The single rooms in the female
enclosure are used for this purpose whenever required but are not specially adapted
for the purposes of a hospital.
The various proposals regarding hospital accommodation in the Madras Asylum
have been dealt with in paragraph 2, under Administration.
In Calicut there is hospital accommodation for 12 males and a cell in the
female enclosure, which is used as hospital, gives accommodation for 8 females.
9. Sickness and its causes.—In the Vizagapatam Asylum 116 patients
were treated in all. The average daily sick was 11*49 against 7*82 in 1894.
This rise in the average was due to some chronic cases being under treatment
throughout the year. The general health of the insanes was good. Of the total
treated, 96 were discharged cured, 2 relieved, 2 died, 4 re-admitted for other
diseases and 12 remained at the end of the year.
The largest number admitted was for fevers (35 in number), mania caused 9
admissions, their violence and refusal to take food necessitating special treatment.
In the Madras Asylum the total number of admissions were 718 as compared
with 1,042 in 1894. The largest number of admissions were as follows :—
Itch 139, mania 136, cholera 56, surfeit 54, epileptic insanity 23, and melan-
cholia 20. The daily average sick for the year 1895 was 89 against 82 of the
previous year.
This increase in the daily average is due to the fact that there were 179 cases
of mental diseases admitted which had to be kept in hospital for a longer time
than most of the other cases.
In the Calicut Asylum the total number treated in hospital during the year
was 112 with a daily average sick of 22*57 against 15*07 in 1894. This rise in the
average was due to the admission of all weakly insanes into the hospital.
10. Forcible feeding*—In the Vizagapatam Asylum there were nine cases
of forcible feeding. Of these six were fed by hand and three had to be fed by the
oesophageal tube. In Madras forcible feeding was resorted to on 193 occasions.
The methods employed were by the nasal tube 140 times, and by enemata per
rectum 53 times. In the Calicut Asylum six males and five females were regularly
fed by hand and two males had to be fed by the nasopharyngeal tube.
11. Mortality and its causes.—Each death with the details of the case
is reported at tho time for my information. There were two deaths in the
Vizagapatam Asylum, one from chronic pneumonic phthisis and tho other from
cirhosis of liver and dropsy. In the Madras Asylum there were 94 ; of these, 37
deaths were caused by tho epidemic of cholera which extended to the first few
weeks of the year under report, excluding these cases, therefore, there were 57
deaths in Madras, which is 129*49 per mille of the average daily population.
The disoases that caused the mortality were cholera 37, tubercle of lung 13, mania 8,
dysentery 7, and starvation 5. In the Calicut Asylum there were 14 deaths