ANNUAL REPORT ON LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
about the centre of the dividing wall, which is to be broken down, (b) to connect all
the buildings by covered passages, (c) to provide each ward block with a separate
bath-room and a small latrine, and (a 7 ) to lower the height of the surrounding walls
of the hospital enclosure to eight feet.
As regards provision of accommodation for the inmates of the present noisy
enclosure, the abolition of which is involved in these proposals, I considered that
this could best be done by erecting a walled enclosure with a light-roofed day shed
in the south-east corner of the asylum grounds. Government having already
sanctioned, in its Order No. 1501, Judicial, dated 19th June 1894, the erection
of a shed of the kind, it remarked that all that is necessary, in addition, is to
provide a small latrine, water tap and bathing platform, and to enclose the whole
with a high wall—patients being housed at night in the general blocks.
I proposed to add a small bath-room to the female hospital, to connect the
latrine with the main building by a covered passage, to adapt block 74 for use as a
room for the nurses by improving its lighting and ventilation and providing it with
a small cooking stove and a boiler, and to complete the enclosure wall. These
proposals have all been sanctioned in the order quoted under (6) and transferred to
the Public Works Department to arrange for the preparation of the necessary plans
and estimates.
(8) Isolation hospital.—I considered the present isolation blocks Nos. 113
and 114) used for patients suffering from contagious diseases of minor importance
unsuitable for the treatment of cholera and small-pox cases, and proposed to provide
for those more serious diseases a separate enclosure in the south-east corner of
the grounds, in which four huts with accommodation for fourteen beds should be
constructed together with a number of accessory buildings. Government approved
of these proposals in the same order.
(9) Management of insanes.—In reviewing the administration reports of all
the Lunatic Asylums in India the Surgeon-General with the Government of India
remarked that the following points should receive increased attention in the man-
agement of the asylums. This was communicated to me with G.O., No. 2411,
Judicial, dated 22nd November 1895.
(i) Improved dietary,
(ii) Better clothing for the convalescent and weak,
(iii) Special means for heating those barracks occupied by the weakly and
convalescent during cold-weather months,
(iv) General introduction of means for affording amusements to insanes,
(v) Selected patients to be allowed to walk outside the asylum walls, and
(vi) Greater attention to be paid to the feeding and clothing of lunatics
when they are in transit to the asylums.
In consultation with the Superintendents of the Asylums, I shall submit a
separate report.
(10) Water-supply.—Regarding the water-supply of the Madras Asylum, the
Superintendent suggests that arrangements should be made to deliver Red Hill
water filtered, so as to minimise the chances of introduction of epidemic diseases.
This, I consider unnecessary, as long as the water for the general population of
the town is unfiltered, he has power to boil the drmkhag water during epidemics
of cholera if it is considered desirable.
(11) Hospital dietary.—The hospital diet scale sanctioned in G.O., No. 1 of
1889 was introduced in all the Asylums for the sick from the first of January of the
year under report.
(12) Recommendations.—In the Madras Asylum the following recommendations
have been sanctioned and carried out:—
(1) Number boards have been affixed to all the blocks;
(2) The weak and sickly insanes were provided with woollen jerseys during
the cold months;
(3) The asphalt flooring of most of the blocks has been replaced by Port-
land cement;
(4) Kerosine oil and Barton's burners have been introduced throughout the
asylum; and
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