7
made by potential suicides generally by trying to strangle or hang themselves.
The attendant staff of the Suicidal Ward deserve much credit for their
unremitting vigilance which prevented any misadventure from happening
among a large number of patients.
22. Accidents and injuries.—Some minor accidents and injuries took place
during the triennium under report but none were serious except in one case of
assault by a patient which amounted to grievous hurt as mentioned in the
Annual Report for the year 1928. In a large Mental Hospital like this all the
staff have had to run the risk of personal violence in some way or other in
their attempts to avert sudden critical situations brought on by dangerous
patients, an instance of which was already given in the Annual Report of
1928. During the year 1929, one male patient very nearly throttled to death
the jamadar of his block under the mistaken idea that the latter was his father
against whom he had a grudge. Another patient climbed up a tree and kept at
bay a large number of staff with a stick in her hand. She was, however,
brought down unhurt by a keeper who had received serious injuries from her
on his head.
23. Autopsies.—109 post-mortems were performed during the triennium
under review as shown below and interesting specimens of brain, etc., have
been preserved.
Year.
1
1927 ... ... ... ... ...
1928 ... ... ... ... ...
1929 ... ... ... ... ...
No. performed.
2
40
45
24
24. Escapes.—There were only 5 escapes during the triennium under
report, namely, 1 in 1927, 2 in 1928 and 2 in 1929 ; three of them were
recaptured and brought back and 2 are still at large.
25. Sanitation.—General sanitation of the hospital was well maintained
throughout the triennium under review. There was no epidemic disease of
any kind either in the hospital or in the staff lines. The disinfection of
patients' clothing and bedding in " Thresh Disinfectors" has been regularly
carried out during the period under review.
26. Treatment of mental conditions.—(i) Hydroth erapy (prolonged
bath).—9 cases were treated in 1927, 39 in 1928 and 43 in 1929. Of the 43
cases treated in 1929 the total number of hours of immersion was recorded to
be 7,476 and the average number of hours of immersion per patient was
173.86. Hydrotherapy holds a high place in the treatment of excited patients
and the results obtained throughout the period under report are most encourag-
ing. Unfortunately this important therapy could not be administered more
extensively for want of a proper Hydrotherapy Ward. This is one of the needs
provided for in the expansion scheme.
(ii) Dietetic.—In a Mental Hospital dietary has a very important place
in the treatment of mental condition of patients, in fact a large percentage of
recoveries is due mainly to a well balanced nourishing diet. It is satisfactory
to note that the diet scales have been very critically examined by Rai
Bahadur Dr. Chuni Lal Bose, C.I.E., M.B., F.C.S., I.S.O., late Chemical Examiner
to the Government of Bengal, and the improvements suggested by him have
been given effect to, so that the present scales of diet are ideal from the point
of Caloric and nutritive values. During the triennium under report the
scales of diet were compared with those fixed for Indian patients of other
mental hospitals in India and were found to be superior in every respect.