12
variations under this head depend largely on the timely adjustment by the
Accounts Department of the amount of medical stores issued to charges by the
Medical Store Depôt ; and the above abstract shows that the value of medicines,
&c., supplied to the Ratnágiri and Poona Asylums during the latter portion of
the year 1899 was not brought to account before the close of the year. The
increase in the cost of " Contingencies " per head of daily average strength at
Poona, Dhárwár and Ahmedabad is due partly to the replacement of old and
worn out articles of contingencies.
Statement No. X is a return of the sanctioned establishment as it stood on
31st December 1899. The monthly cost was Rs. 3,892-8-0 against Rs. 4,094-8-0
in 1898.
Statement No. XI gives receipts and expenditure of the manufacturing
department. The total credits amounted to Rs. 3,697-8-6 and debits to
Rs. 2,312-2-3, giving a profit of Rs. 1,385-6-3 against Rs. 1,114-15-9 in the
previous year. The average number of insanes employed during the year was
328.9 (males 267.0 and females 61.9) against 359.4 (males 291.3 and females
68.1) in 1898. In calculating the percentage of the lunatics employed, those
used as supplementary servants of the asylums, i.e., for works other than
manufactures, have also been included in this statement, but the estimated
value of their labour has not been taken into account.
In this connection I beg to state, for the information of Government, that
the importance of finding work for the lunatics is recognised. A large number
of the patients are unfit for steady or profitable labour ; and there is not only
much difficulty in providing suitable occupation, but in some instances a want
of skilled supervisors. At Colába lunatics who are willing to be engaged in
some occupation are allowed to work in the factory attached to the asylum or
on extramural work, but the European and Eurasian inmates have little suitable
occupation in which they can be employed. In other asylums of this Presi-
dency, gardening and cultivation are the chief occupations of those who are
willing to work. The female inmates are, for the most part, employed in grind-
ing corn. The unruly insanes are, as much as possible, induced to work by the
knowledge that they will not otherwise be allowed to share in the diversions and
other inducements provided. These consist in musical instruments, games, books,
papers, periodicals, &c.; and native musicians are also occasionally engaged on the
principal holidays, when extra diet, sweetmeats, &c., are supplied to the inmates
and are much appreciated. The sum expended for the recreation and amuse-
ments of the inmates during the year under review was Rs. 1,380 as compared
with Rs. 1,460 in 1898.
Without considerable expenditure and a more intelligent staff of attendants,
it will not, in my opinion, be possible to largely increase remunerative work in
the asylums of this Presidency. Few of the patients are fit for such occupa-
tion, but if suitable establishments and plant were provided, milch cattle might
be kept and dairies opened at a few of the asylums, though they would have to
compete with other dairy farms which now exist in most of the larger towns.
The question of diminishing restraint receives as much attention as possible
from Superintendents ; but I agree with these officers in their opinion that, until
a more educated and intelligent class of persons is attracted to asylum service
by improved pay, there can be but little advance in the details of managing our
insanes. The present wages of the attendants are those of the ordinary labourer,
and consequently the warders are scarcely above this class. In the case of
the majority of insanes of this country, I believe that confinement within en-
closures is necessitated not only by the want of capacity and attentiveness on
the part of the warders, but by their own low intelligence which renders a large
proportion of the cases unmanageable and unimproveable. So that, whilst
I acknowledge that the confinement of the patients as a whole can be made less
irksome by structural improvements including more spacious exercise yards,
and by a more capable staff of attendants, I am unable to admit that excessive
restraint is now imposed on refractory individuals or that the liberty of
the general body of inmates is seriously restricted in the asylums of this
Presidency.