No. S.B. / 1503 of 1901.
Bombay, 21st June 1901.
From
THE SURGEON-GENERAL WITH THE
GOVERNMENT OF BOMBAY ;
To
THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT,
General Department, Bombay.
SIR,
I have the honour to submit, for the information of Government, the
Administration Report on the Lunatic Asylums of the Bombay Presidency for
the year 1900.
2. So far as structural defects and general organization and equipment
allowed, the results of the management of these institutions were satisfactory,
and creditable to the medical officers in charge and their subordinates. There
was no overcrowding, except in the women's side of the Colába Asylum, where the
population averaged 29.8 in excess of the accommodation. But though the
death-rate among the females in this asylum was high (200 per mille), it was
less than among the males (253 per mille) ; and the records show that whilst in
the years 1892,1894, 1896 and 1897, with a daily average excess of only 14.7
women over accommodation, the average ratio of deaths among the women was
217 per mille, during the remaining five years of the decennium, when the
average excess of strength was 18, their death-ratio was only 82 per mille. It
is therefore clear that, whatever influence overcrowding may have had upon the
mortality of the female insanes at Colába in certain years, its effects were not
constant. And as regards the sickness of the year under report, it may be
noted that, with an average population just over one-third that of the men, the
number of admissions among the women at Colába were for dysentery only 3 out
of a total of 47, for phthisis only 3 out of 20, and for diarrhœa only 4 out of
19 cases ; though, out of a total of 83 cases of fever, 25 occurred among the female
insanes.
3. In all the asylums together there was a considerable increase in the
amount of sickness, the total admissions into hospital being 511, giving, with
those remaining, a total of 543, as compared with 458 in the previous year.
Of these, 355 were cured, 12 were discharged otherwise and 139 died, leaving
37 in hospital on the 31st December 1900. The daily average of sick was 42,
as against 37.4 in the year 1899;
The chief causes of admission into hospital were malarial fever, debility,
anæmia, dysentery, diarrhœa, cholera, epilepsy, Bright's disease and phthisis.
There was a slight reduction in the number of insanes treated for fevers, but
a large increase in those for diarrhœa and cholera, which numbered 48 and 44, as
compared with 21 and 3 during the year 1899. Of the cases of diarrhœa 19 and
17 respectively occurred in the asylums at Colába and Hyderabad; whilst of those
of cholera there were 7 at Colába, 3 at Ratnágiri, 9 at Ahmedabad and 25 at
Hyderabad. The Superintendents at Colába and Ratnágiri were unable to trace
the source of the cholera; but at Ahmedabad, and in many parts of Gujarát,
the disease was epidemic at the time, whilst at Hyderabad the outbreak of this
disease began with the attack of the asylum cook, who is supposed to have
contracted it in the neighbouring village of Gidu Bandar, where it was prevalent.
Of the 24 cases of phthisis, 20 occurred in the Colába Asylum; and the same
institution registered 35 out of the combined total of 67 cases of anæmia and
debility and also all the cases of Bright's disease, 13 in number. The percent-
ages of the daily average sick to the daily population was 5.4 for all the
asylums, as compared with 4.7 in 1899 ; and it varied from 0.6 at Ratnágiri to
9.1 at Poona. One case of plague occurred in the Colába Asylum, the patient
B 70—1