Annual Report on Lunatic Asylums for 1883.
No. 1470.
GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Bombay Castle, 6th May 1884.
Letter from the Surgeon General with the Government of Bombay, No. S.B.-97, dated 14th
March 1884—Submitting the Annual Administration and Progress Report of the
Lunatic Asylums in the Bombay Presidency for the year 1883.
RESOLUTION.—The punctuality with which the annual reports on the
administration of lunatic asylums in this Presidency have invariably been
submitted to Government reflects credit on the Surgeon General's Department.
The present report reached Government a fortnight before the prescribed date.
2. Dr. Beatty reports that, during the year under review, though the want
of accommodation in the asylums was not so pressingly felt as in the preceding
year, the accommodation was still inadequate in four out of the five existing
asylums, and that except at Hyderabad admission had occasionally to be
refused to patients until vacancies occurred. In the review of the report for
1882 Government stated that when the new asylum at Ratnàgiri was completed
the existing institutions would be relieved of the pressure now felt. The
asylum is estimated to cost Rs. 92,345 in all, but of this Rs. 13,250 were spent
up to the end of 1882-83, Rs. 3,000 were to be spent in 1883-84, and Rs. 20,000
have been provided for the purpose in the Public Works Budget for 1884-85,
making in all Rs. 36,250 or a little more than one-third of the total grant re-
quired. The Public Works Department should, if possible, provide a larger
grant in future with a view to the speedy completion of the asylum. The
question of providing separate accommodation for criminal lunatics is again
referred to in the Surgeon General's report, but, as stated in Government Reso-
lution No. 1407, dated 25th April 1883, there is little prospect of funds being
available for this purpose for some time to come. In the meantime the in-
structions contained in Government Resolution, Judicial Department, No. 7634,
dated 7th November 1883, regarding the retransfer to jails of criminal lunatics
with unexpired sentences who may become of sound mind, should be carefully
attended to.
3. The total number of lunatics under treatment at the several asylums
during the year was 948 as compared with 931 in the preceding year. The
number of male and female patients respectively rose from 778 and 153 in 1882
to 788 and 160 in 1883. 312 persons were newly admitted and 17 re-admitted;
of these 114 were Europeans (the majority being soldiers from different stations
in India), 2 Eurasians, 11 Native Christians, 116 Hindus, 73 Mahomedans,
12 Pársis and of one the caste was not known. The daily average strength was
611.4—males 495.7 and females 115.7—as compared with 625.3 in 1882. The
total number of patients discharged, excluding those transferred from one asylum
to another, was 259, of whom 99 were sent away cured, and 160 were handed
over to the care of friends (126 improved and 34 not improved). The number
of criminal insanes treated was 107, being 5 more than in the previous year.
Of these, 15 were discharged, 10 died, and 82 remained at the close of the year.
The Surgeon General has not shown separately in Statement No. I. the statistics
of European and Native patients in the Colába Asylum, as required by the
Government of India (vide paragraph 2 of Government Resolution No. 3681,
dated 8th October 1883). Dr. Beatty should be requested to explain the cause
of this omission, and to supply always in future the required information.
4. The alleged causes of insanity were traceable only among half the
number of patients treated; in 389 cases insanity was ascribed to physical
causes, such as the use of gánja, spirits and opium, and certain forms of diseases.
Out of the 85 cases in which insanity was attributed to moral causes, 60 were
said to be due to grief.
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