16                                            LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.

Causes of insanity.

Ganjah-caused in-
sanity.

24. Causes of Insanity.—No cause is assigned in 42.5 of the cases, against 59.4 of last
year, and of cases in which causes are assigned, 95.6 were due to physical and 4.4 to moral causes.
Among the former ganjah again stands pre-eminent. Hereditary influence is only noted in 10
of the 400 cases admitted. Among criminal lunatics the use of ganjah is said to have caused
the insanity of 16 out of 24 cases, for whose insanity a cause has been assigned, and a total
of 65 admissions. The percentage of ganjah-caused insanity is, thus, only 24, against 45 in the
non-criminal class. The percentage of cases of insanity due to ganjah is only 15 among
females. The figures denoting results under each cause are in most instances too small to
bear any discussion. 21.60 per cent. of cases caused by ganjah recovered, against a total
recovery rate of 16.9, while the death-rate among this class of cases was only 5.5 against an
average rate of 8.5. Among spirit-drinkers the recovery rate is nearly the same, but the
death-rate is higher. The rate of cures in hereditary insanity is small, but the death-rate
large; the numbers are small however. It is impossible to analyse more closely data regarding
whose truth there is so much doubt as those represented in this table, but the deductions
above drawn will, it is believed, be found consonant with experience.