8                                                   LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.

stand thus in order of their mortality—viz. Dullunda, Dacca, Moydapore, Berhampore, Patna
and Cuttack. The mortality in the Dullunda and Dacca Asylums still continues at a very high
rate—viz. in the former 13.39 per cent. of males and 24.00 per cent. of females, in the latter
11.05 per cent. of males and 33.66 per cent. of females, on the mean strength of each sex.

High death-rate of
female patients.

45. The high rate of the female mortality has been noticed in previous years, but no
satisfactory explanation has been offered of the fact. It may be that the females admitted
into these asylums come from the poorest classes of the community, or that they suffer from
insanity in its worst forms.

Death-rate in
asylums in other
provinces.

46. The death-rates of asylums in other provinces for 1875 are shewn in statement No. 6,
and it will be observed that in them the percentage of the total mortality calculated on the
mean strength was higher than in those of Bengal:—

                                            STATEMENT No. 6.

Principal causes
of mortality in the
several asylums.

47. In the following table is shewn the death-rate in each asylum per cent. of mean
strength, the diseases which caused the principal mortality in the several asylums, and the
number of deaths from each, with the rate per cent. of deaths from them to the total
mortality:—

N.B.—The figures on the upper lines opposite the diseases denote the number of deaths, and on the lower the rate per cent. of
deaths to total mortality of each sex.

It will be noticed from an inspection of the preceding table that bowel complaints were,
in all the asylums, the principal cause of mortality among the male patients. In the Dacca,
Moydapore, Patna, and Dullunda Asylums, phthisis contributed a large portion to the total
mortality of the male patients. Fevers gave a rather high proportion of the deaths of males in
the Berhampore Asylum, and brain diseases and cholera (the former particularly in
Dullunda and Patna, the latter in Berhampore, Patna, and Dullunda)—although the
number of deaths from them was not high—caused a fair proportion of the general mortality
of the male lunatics.

The rate of mortality of the female patients (calculated on their mean strength) was
very high in the Dacca, Dullunda, and Moydapore Asylums. In the two former asylums,
bowel complaints and cholera caused the principal mortality. The death-rate of females in
the Patna Asylum was low, being only 2.00 per cent. of mean strength.

The mortality of both sexes from lung diseases was unusually small during 1875, and
there was an absence of any serious epidemic disease.