4
Statement No. VII gives the alleged causes of insanity among the lunatics.
In connection with this statement I beg to add that the whole of the columns
under the head of "Moral causes" have been abolished and all such cases
included under one general heading, namely, " Moral causes," as ordered by the
Government of India in their above-quoted letter.
Of the 1,006 cases, a cause is given in 475 and is unknown in 531. Physi-
cal causes numbered 387 and moral 88. Among the former, the use of intoxicat-
ing drugs and abuse of spirits are credited with 155 cases, previous attacks
accounted for 56, epilepsy 37, hereditary causes 31, fever 28, congenital disease 18,
injury to head and masturbation 12 each, destitution 10, child-birth 7, sexual
excess 6, sunstroke 5, syphilis and climate 4 each, and uterine disorder and
paralysis 1 each. Among the criminal insanes charged with crimes of violence,
the following are the alleged causes of insanity :—
Gánja smoking ... ...
Spirit drinking ... ...
Fever ... ...
Puerperal fever ...
Epilepsy ... ...
Injury to head ... ...
12
2
3
1
10
1
Hereditary ... ...
Grief ... ...
Religion ... ...
Anger ... ...
Anxiety ... ...
3
3
1
1
1
In 43 such cases the cause is not known.
Statement No. VIII is a return of the sick in the asylum hospitals (for
diseases other than insanity), with the results. At the beginning of the year
there remained 42 patients under treatment and 509 were admitted during the
year, making a total of 551 against 409 in the previous year. Of these, 424
were cured, 10 discharged otherwise (6 transferred to the care of friends,
2 relieved, 1 escaped and in one case the disease was changed) and 78 died,
leaving 39 on the sick roll on 31st December 1896. The daily average sick
was 47.2 (males 34.7 and females 12.5) as compared with 44.8 (males 33.8 and
females 11.0) in 1895. The chief causes of admissions were ague, debility,
dysentery, epilepsy, diarrhoea, anaemia, bronchitis, pneumonia, chronic pneu-
monic phthisis and Bright's disease. Of the 78 deaths, 20 were due to dysen-
tery, 9 to chronic pneumonic phthisis, 8 to epilepsy, 5 each to pneumonia and
Bright's disease, 4 each to debility and anaemia, 3 each to old age and diarrhoea,
2 each to remittent fever, paralysis and valvular disease of the heart and 1 each
to enteric fever, pyaemia, tubercle of lungs, dropsy, apoplexy, hemiplegia, tetanus,
general paralysis combined with old age, fatty degeneration of heart, bronchitis
and burns and scalds.
The following table gives the ratio of deaths per mille of the average daily
strength and the total population of each of the asylums as compared with that
of the preceding year :—
Colába ... ... ...
Ratnágiri
...
...
Poona
...
...
Dhárwár ... ...
Ahmedabad ... ...
Hyderabad (Sir Cowasji
Jehángir).
Total ...
1896 ...
1895 ...
1896 ...
1895 ...
1896 ..
1895 ...
1896 ...
1895 ...
1896 ...
1895 ...
1896 ...
1895 ..
1896 ...
1895 ...
Average
Daily
Strength.
274.8
283.0
94.9
98.4
94.0
85.5
49.4
46.0
103.8
105.7
106.5
99.0
723.4
717.6
Total
Popula-
tion.
432
417
111
108
145
140
56
54
117
119
145
140
1,006
978
Number
of
deaths.
51
35
4
3
9
18
4
2
5
3
5
7
78
68
Ratio of deaths per mille to
Average Daily
Strength.
185.6
123.7
42.1
30.5
95.7
210.5
81.0
43.5
48.2
28.4
46.9
70.7
107.8
94.7
Total
Population.
118.1
83.9
36.0
27.8
62.1
128.6
71.4
37.0
42.7
25.2
34.5
50.0
77.5
69.5