iii

the absence of proper care, treatment and supervision of people
suffering from mental defects in these two provinces is leading to
any serious mental deterioration of the people.

10.  The problem is one which has hitherto affected a people
the majority of whom live under primitive conditions, but with
the advent of education amongst the masses, the conditions
visualised by the Superintendent, viz., an accelerated tempo of
living, may be productive eventually of greater mental strain and
an increase of mental disorders.

11.  Whether this epoch is advancing slowly or rapidly, the
effective repercussions of the administration to meet such a situa-
tion will, as at present, depend on financial considerations.

12.  The question to be decided is whether India should
follow the policy of other countries and erect more mental hospitals
or the alternative policy of allowing the care of the mental cases
to devolve upon the. communities where they reside. It is again
the problem of decentralisation and whether it is wise to develop
the Policy of Self Help Associations at the periphery, rather than
attempt to overcome a complicated and enormous problem by
central organisations.

One cannot visualise a mental hospital being erected in every
district in a province, similar to the county asylums in England,
and the alternative method would appear to be one for serious
consideration. This alternative method implies that the care of
the mental cases should be the responsibility of the community in
which they live—an opportunity for the philanthropist and the
cultivation of the spirit of civic responsibility. In this respect
one may add that the institution of the Private Mental Home, the
absence of which the Superintendent deplores, is not irrelevant.

13.  The question of whether it is wise to herd a large
number of people of unsound mind together in one institution
with the intention of effecting a return to the normal mental
state, is not a controversial one, but one of expediency and prin-
ciple. Expediency in that the relations of the patient are not in
a position to take care of him; principle, in that the services of
a mental expert are not available It would therefore follow
that if the community is to be responsible for its own insanes,
the medical men who are available in the vicinity should have
a practical knowledge of the modern methods of psychiatry and
be available for advice.

14. In this respect this country is very much below standard
and the suggestion of a higher training for medical graduates