ANNUAL REPORT ON LUNATTC ASYLUMS.
(12) Criminal population and their sub-divisions.—No criminal lunatics are
received into the Vizagapatam and Calicut Asylums. In the Madras Asylum there
remained from the previous year 126 males and 1 7 females ; and 28 males and 2
females were admitted in 1897, making a total of 173. The deaths numbered 1
more than in 18y6, while admissions numbered 2 less. Of the admissions, 2 were
tried and acquitted prisoners, 18 were under-trial prisoners incapable of making a
defence, and 10 were cases that became insane during confinement in jail.
(b) Accommodation—
(1) Sufficiency.—Tbere was no overcrowding in any of the asylums. In the
Madras Asylum, with available accommodation for 689 lunatics, the maximum
number of inmates on any one day was 432; while the maximum numbers at
Vizagapatam and Calicut, with accommodation, respectively, for 91 and 135
lunatics, were 75 and 101.
In calculating the above accommodation available for general insanes, the
following accommodation is reserved for the sick in hospital:—
Madras
Vizagapatam ..
Calicut
Males.
32
13
12
Females.
14
No admissions have occurred in the ' special wards ' during the past year.
(2) New constructions.—These embraced—(a) in Madras the new well in the
criminal enclosure was completed, and a large cistern iu connexion with it; a teak
ceiling to one of the rooms in the Superintendent's quarters; and the construction
of a masonry culvert; (b) in Vizagapatam a cook-room on the standard plan for
jails was commenced in March lo97, and is still under construction; and (c) in
Calicut the office building, which was in very unsafe condition, was dismantled.
(3) Repairs executed.—In Madras an oven was rebuilt in the kitchen and
petty repairs to the blocks and service pipes were executed. In Vizagapatam the
hospital was re-roofed, and the old bath and store rooms attached thereto were
converted into single rooms; the re-roofing of the female ward was in progress.
The walls to a height of 5 feet have been cemented. The usual annual minor
repairs, such as lime-washing, tarring, shifting and replacing tiles, &c, were carried
out in Calicut, as well as in the other asylums.
(4) State of repair.—The buildings in the Madras Asylum are in fair state
of repair ; some portions of the walls of different blocks require re-plastering on
their exterior. In Vizagapatam the walls of the male sleeping wards and of the
single rooms require cementing on their inside and plastering outside.
In Calicut the buildings are not at all satisfactory and need thorough repair.
The alterations and improvements sanctioned by Government for the Madras Asylum
have been held in abeyance for want of funds—vide G.O., No. 3467 W., Public
Works, dated 4th December 1896.
(5) Hospital accommodation for males and females.—The hospital accommo-
dation in the Madras Asylum is very inadequate. The improvements, sanctioned in
C.O., No. 3467 W., dated 4th December 1896, are urgently required. In Vizaga-
patam accommodation exists for 13 males ; the single rooms in the female enclosure
are used for female patients as necessary. In Calicut there is accommodation for
12 males; female patients are treated in a cell in the female enclosure.
(c) Sanitation—
(1) Conservancy,—In Madras the work was done as well as could be effected
with the limited toty staff available.
The Superintendent maintains that the proportion of sweepers to insanes (now
1 to 20) should be raised, and I am of the same opinion. He also suggests that
the good-conduct pay (sanctioned in G.O., No. 874, Judicial, dated 26th April 1895),
should be merged into an increased monthly salary; and that early effect be given
to the Government order sanctioning huts for the sweepers (CO., No. 1701, Judicial,
dated ?8th October 1896).
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