2
No. 619, PUBLIC, 22ND MAY
1897.
lunatics likely to become dangerous. The Surgeon-General will be requested to
report the result of the steps taken by him in view to procuring the transfer to the
care of relatives or friends of harmless civil insanes.
1895 ..
1896 ..
Hindus.
119
90
Muhamma-
dans.
41
20
Christians.
45
29
Other
religions.
16
17
Total.
221
156
Although the number of inmates in the three asylums at the beginning of the
year was fifteen less than in 1895 and the admissions fell by 65, there was an increase
in the number of patients discharged, cured or improved—a result very creditable to
the Superintendents of the asylums. As
compared with the previous year there was
a decrease in the proportion of Muham-
madans admitted and an increase under
" Other religions." The proportion of the two sexes remained almost the same as in
1895. Madras City again provided the largest number of admissions (30). Turning
to the previous occupations of insanes, the usual large proportion of cultivators and
cooly-carriers appears. The number of beggars fell from fourteen in 1895 to four in
the year under review.
Mania was the type of insanity from which most of the patients were suffering;
melancholia coming next, except in the Vizagapatam asylum where dementia took its
place. Delusional insanity was found only in the latter asylum : this fact is, no doubt,
attributable to differences of diagnosis or of nomenclature, and not to any extraneous
causes.
Specific causes of insanity were assigned in 85 per cent. of the cases admitted and
in 73 per cent. of all those under treatment
In reviewing the annual report for 1895, the Government expressed doubts as to
the correctness of the diagnoses which assigned ganja-smoking as the cause of insanity
in a very large number of cases, this conclusion being in direct conflict with the opinion
of the Hemp Drugs Commission. Though many cases admitted during 1896 have
again been attributed to this cause, the Surgeon-General has not offered any explana-
tion or thrown any light on the matter.
The curtailment of Statement VII so as to include under one head many causes of
insanity detracts from the interest of the statement and renders comparison with
previous years difficult. The Surgeon-General should, unless there are valid grounds
for not doing so, revert to the form previously used.
The accommodation in all three asylums was sufficient throughout the year.
With regard to the necessity for a larger kitchen at Madras, the Surgeon-General will
be referred to G.O., No. 1701,Public, dated 28th October 1896, paragraph 18. Pending
a reply from the Government of India to the letter of this Government, No. 1218,
Judicial, dated 23rd July 1896, nothing beyond absolutely necessary repairs can be
undertaken at Vizagapatam and Calicut. The Government regrets that financial
pressure has rendered it necessary to cancel the provision made in the budget for
the current year for carrying out the improvements sanctioned in G.O., No. 3467 W.,
dated 4th December 1896.
From the table showing the results of weighments in the three asylums it appears
that at Vizagapatam 84 per cent. and at Calicut 62 per cent. of the patients admitted
during the year gained weight, the percentage in Madras being only 44. Every one
of the patients discharged from the Vizagapatam asylum during the year had gained
weight since his admission.
3. Sanitation.—Sanitation
and general hygiene appear to have received careful
attention. The number of toties employed in the attendants' lines at Madras has
now been raised and the necessity for adding to the conservancy staff in the hospital
is under consideration : no proposal to add to the general conservancy establishment
appears to have been laid before Government. If such an increase is desirable, that
question, as well as the proposal to erect a hall for the amusements of the inmates of
the Madras asylum and to provide separate hospital accommodation for female lunatics
at Calicut, should be dealt with in separate communications.
Health.—The following statement compares the health of the inmates of the
three asylums in the last three years :—