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                                    GOVERNMENT OF MADRAS.

                                      JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.

ORDER—dated 18th October 1886, No. 2816, Judicial.

G.O., dated 5th January 1886, No. 20.

The annual report on the Lunatic Asylums of the Madras Presidency, which the
Surgeon-General with Government submits with the foregoing letter, only covers the
period of nine months ending 31st December 1885, in consequence of the report having,
for the first time, been drawn up for the calendar, instead of, as heretofore, for the
official year. This change, which was adopted in compliance with the wish of the
Government of India expressed in their
letter, dated 11th December 1885, No.
654, that the practice in Madras might
be assimilated to that in use in other presidencies, prevents the institution of any
close comparison between the figures of the present report and those of previous years.

2. The following statement exhibits the results in the asylums of the presidency
for the two preceding years and for the nine months of 1885 :—

3. Commenting on these figures, the Surgeon-General remarks that the admis-
sions for the nine months of 1885 were proportionately in excess of the figures of the
preceding twelve months—a result which shows, he says, that, as in past years, the
number of insanes sent for treatment is steadily increasing, though this may be due,
not to lunacy becoming more common, but to the fact that the benefits of treatment in
asylums are becoming more generally known and better appreciated. With reference
to this remark, the Government observe that both the facts of the Surgeon-General
and his deduction from them are incorrect. Past years have not shown an increasing
number of insanes sent for treatment. On the contrary, the admissions since 1882.83
have been almost stationary as shown in
the margin, and the proportional increase
in the nine months under review is very
slight. The steady increase which has
appeared in the asylums' population is
due, not to larger admissions, but to the
fact, pointed out last year, that the number discharged and removed does not keep
pace with that admitted. There is a constant tendency to accumulate. The calcula-
tion made in last year's review that every hundred admissions raised the popu-
lation at the end of the year by 21 has been shown to be below, rather than above, the
mark. The population of the asylums at the end of the year was 600 against 548 at
the commencement—an increase of 52, the admissions having meanwhile numbered
179. The daily average strength rose from 521 in 1884-85 to 581 in the period
under review.