Annual Report on Lunatic Asylums, 1882.
No. 1407.
GENERAL DEPARTMENT.
Bombay Castle, 25th April 1883.
Letter from the Surgeon General with the Government of Bombay, No. S. B.—104, dated
30th March 1883—Submitting the " Annual Administration and Progress Report of the
Insane Asylums in the Bombay Presidency" for the year 1882.
RESOLUTION.—The number of asylums (5) was the same as in the previ-
ous year. The Surgeon General brings to notice the want of accommodation
felt at Colába, and to a less degree at Dhárwár and Ahmedabad. Accommoda-
tion is provided for 300 insanes at the Colába Asylum, but the daily average
number there was 8.5 in excess of that number. The Governor in Council
expects that when the new asylum at Ratnágiri, for the construction of which
provision has been made by the Public Works Department in the current year's
budget, is completed, the existing institutions will be relieved of the pressure
which has hitherto been complained of. The Public Works Department should
be requested to direct the construction of the building in question to be pro-
ceeded with as speedily as possible. As regards the Dhárwár Asylum, Govern-
ment have already approved of the proposal to transfer it to Belgaum on account
of the greater accessibility of the latter place to several districts. The transfer
is awaiting the submission by the Commissioner, S. D., and the Surgeon Gene-
ral of the proposals called for from them for the erection of a suitable building
for an asylum at Belgaum.
2. Dr. Beatty is of opinion that a separate institution should be provided
for the accommodation of criminal insanes, of whom there were 73 at the end of
the year confined in the asylums at Ahmedabad, Colába and Dhárwár. The
Governor in Council regrets that there is little prospect of funds being available
for this purpose for some time.
3. The total number of lunatics in the asylums during the year was 931
(778 males and 153 females) as compared with 903 in 1881. 296 were newly
admitted and 8 re-admitted. The daily average number was 625.3—males 506.4,
females 118.9. 260 are said to have been discharged during the year, but this
number includes 7 who were transferred from the Colába to the Poona Asylum,
and who should not have been entered as "discharged;" 100 were cured, 152
transferred to friends (121 improved and 31 not improved), and 1 escaped from
the Poona Asylum and was not recaptured. There were 102 criminal lunatics
under treatment as compared with 110 in the preceding year. Of the 304
patients admitted and re-admitted during the year under review, 120 were
Europeans, 2 Eurasians, 8 Native Christians, 117 Hindus, 46 Musalmáns and
11 Pársis.
4. In 395 cases insanity is ascribed to physical causes such as the use of
gánja, spirits and opium, and certain forms of diseases, and in 75 cases it is attri-
buted to moral causes, the principal of which is grief. In 461 cases the cause is
not traceable.
5. The health of the patients was generally satisfactory. At the Ahmed-
abad Asylum there was an outbreak of cholera which caused 4 deaths. It is to
be noticed that in the preceding year 6 deaths occurred from this disease in the
same asylum. The total number of deaths during the year in all the asylums
was 52, or 1 less than in 1881. The principal diseases affecting the patients
were malarious fevers, diarrhœa, debility, dysentery and ulcer. It appears
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