OFFICE OF THE SURGEON-GENERAL
                                                WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF MADRAS,
                                                  OOTACAMUND. 24th June 1884.

                                No. O/179.

From

                  W. R. CORNISH, ESQ., F.R.C.S., C.I.E.,
                                      Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras,

To

                 THE HONORABLE E. F. WEBSTER,
                                                    Chief Secretary to Government,
                                                                                      Judicial Department.

SIR,

I HAVE the honor to forward, for the information of the Right Honorable the
Governor in Council, the reports on the lunatic asylums of this Presidency for the
official year ending 31st March 1884.

2.  As pointed out in previous reports, there is a steady increase in the demand
for asylum accommodation, due in part to the accumulation of criminal lunatics,
and in part to greater activity of the police in arresting wandering lunatics. The
Madras asylum, in regard to certain classes of patients, and especially of criminal
lunatics, will require increased accommodation, while Government have already
approved of additions to the Calicut asylum, which during the past year has been
inconveniently overcrowded.

3.  GENERAL RESULTS.—The number of lunatics of all classes remaining in
asylums on 31st March 1883 was 434, the numbers admitted during 1883-84
were 218, the total of all classes treated was 652. Of these were discharged cured
98, 37 civil lunatics were discharged or transferred to the care of friends, 26
died (2 criminal and 24 civil); and the number remaining under treatment at the
end of the year was 493, or 59 in excess of the number remaining in the previous
year.

4.  It will be observed that the number of insane, both of the civil and criminal
classes, shows a tendency to increase. The three asylums at present afford accom-
modation for nearly 600 patients of all classes, and Government have already
sanctioned an enlargement of the accommodation at Calicut and an increased
provision for criminal lunatics in Madras. Fortunately, the lands in connection
with the several asylums afford the means of greatly extending buildings, as they
may be required from time to time, without danger of overcrowding or making
the asylums unhealthy.

5.  The daily average of lunatics present in the asylums during the year was
475 against 424 in the previous year.

6.  The past year has been one of the most satisfactory on record both in
regard to the proportion of recoveries to admissions, and in the low rates of
mortality. In the former year there had been a tendency to scurvy in the Madras
asylum, but with attention to diet this passed off, and the general physical con-
dition of the insanes much improved. The Superintendent of the Calicut asylum
notices that many of the people who come into the asylum bear evidence of
privation, and that the regular food and life in the asylum soon produces an
amendment in their physical and mental condition. The following table shows the