ANNUAL REPORT ON LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
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most important want in their mental treatment, viz., not enough evidence of the
cheerful side of life, either in the way of active games out of doors or recreation
in-doors."
" Native Patients.—To them also apply the same remarks. It is true that they
are occupied in various ways, but their occupations are either in the direction of
work, as pulling at a cart, or weeding a walk, or they do nothing, and it is difficult,
if not impossible to find work that a native likes or an amusement that he cares
for that he will continue to follow."
" Criminals.—I think it a grave question whether the addition of the criminal
section to the Madras Lunatic Asylum has not been a most mischievous error.
For the sake of economy and compactness of administration, a criminal element
has been introduced into an institution from which it should have been kept
separate. The proximity of the criminal to the civil element has a tendency to
cause a too marked centralization of system, to consider the lunatic side of the
question too little and the jail side too much, and I believe it would be better
to completely divide the two; the warders should not be the same, the whole
establishment should be disconnected, and all questions of jail routine as to the
cost of wearing materials, the amount of labour expended, the hours adopted,
the cost per head per criminal should not be thrown on to our office at all, with
our very small establishment. The bringing the prison element into the Lunatic
Asylum is an incompatibility, and I think should be as carefully avoided as the
addition of a jail to a charitable hospital for the sick poor."
The Vizagapatam Asylum has as usual been well managed during the year,
and is a credit to Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Leapingwell, whose remarks re-
garding First-grade Hospital Assistant Y. Anantayya I fully endorse.
The Calicut Asylum has been, on the whole, well managed during the year,
but I would have liked more assistance from Surgeon-Major Carruthers in bringing
to my notice the slowness of the Public Works Department in carrying out the
necessary repairs and new works. First-grade Hospital Assistant D. Rajanthram
in that Asylum has done admirable work during the year.
As regards the Madras Asylum I largely concur in the general remarks of the
Superintendent Surgeon-Major Elcum who, at the time of his making the report,
had before him the reports of Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Dobie, Surgeon-
Lieutenant-Colonel W. G. King, M.B., and Surgeon-Major Armstrong, all of whom
had been previously Superintendents of the Asylum at different periods. He also
had previous knowledge of the Asylum in 1892 and 1893, during which he acted
as Superintendent. The problem of managing efficiently and economically such a
large Asylum as the Madras one with a maximum accommodation for 711 insanes,
and an average daily population during the past ten years varying from 417.64 in
1885 to 474.26 in 1894, is a most difficult one, especially as we have never had the
advantage of an expert in administrating such a population of insanes. As
already pointed out to me by Government, there have been no less than eleven
different Medical Officers acting as Superintendents during the past ten years.
None of them were long enough in charge to entitle them to be considered
experts; as a matter of fact I referred some important questions of administration
to Surgeon-Major Elcum and two other experienced and able medical officers who
had been Superintendents and encountered the difficulty of getting three opinions,
all of which differed essentially on important questions. Neither I, nor any
of my predecessors have had special experience in the management of Lunatic
Asylums, except Surgeon-General Bidie, whose experience was about the year
1866-67. It must also be remembered that there is no lunatic asylum of this
size in the Fast. Most of the local Governments in India have considered it
more desirable to have several small asylums.
The system of uniting an asylum for criminal lunatics and one for the treat-
ment of ordinary lunatics whom it is considered desirable to confine in an asylum
also considerably complicated the question.
I have laid certain propositions during the year regarding the—
(a) accommodation of the sick in hospital.
(b) The nursing of the sick.
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