230 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
to a reasonable belief
that it was so." But in his evidence before the Commis-
sion on 22nd January 1894, this officer stated: "My reasonable
belief as to
cause was based on reading the papers and seeing whether they
showed a probable
cause of insanity, and on
enquiry from the lunatic.............I feel very
little
confidence in the diagnosis
I have made ascribing these cases to hemp drugs."
Statistics are based on
the de-
scriptive rolls.
516. There is clearly no
valid ground in the practice of these three
Superintend-
ents for modifying the
general statement based on the
frank admission of the great majority of the Superin-
tendents that the entries regarding cause in the registers, and
therefore the figures
in annual Statement No. VII, have been based wholly on the
descriptive rolls or
similar papers received with the lunatics. This practice has, no
doubt, become
established owing to the following considerations. As already
stated, many Super-
intendents have recognized these papers as practically the only
material they had
for determining cause. They have not had adequate opportunities for
making
enquiries themselves. They have had a general impression that the
informa-
tion supplied by Magistrates or police was as good as the
Government required
for statistical purposes, and they have accepted it accordingly. As
a rule
they have regarded this question of cause as one of little or no
practical import-
ance. The Government prescribed Statement VII, and pressed to have
the
columns filled up; and as a rule the orders were carried out in
this somewhat
mechanical way. Surgeon-Major Carruthers, Superintendent at
Calicut, per-
haps puts this view in the strongest terms when he says: "My
position as
Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum requires me to take charge of
insanes
when they are sent in, and retain them until they are fit for
discharge. I am
simply keeper and incidentally medical attendant, and not
responsible for any
statements and certificates received with the patient so long as
they are in
order." The same view is, however, as clearly expressed by
Brigade-Surgeon-
Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper when he says: "I do not consider that the
ques-
tion of cause is one which affects the treatment of cases. My
inquiries there-
fore into cause are of a statistical, not a practical, character.
The result will not
affect my treatment of the case." Even to an officer who sees that
the know-
ledge of the cause may help him in the treatment of the case,
responsibility for
the accuracy of the returns is a very minor matter.
Surgeon-Lieutenant-
Colonel Leapingwell (Vizagapatam), for example, says: "The point,
of course,
is chiefly one of personal interest to me in the treatment of the
case. An entry
was made (in the particular case under discussion) on the papers. I
omitted
to alter the register." It is clear then that the medical officers
in charge of
asylums have not felt that they have been in any way responsible
for the accu-
racy of the figures contained in annual Statement VII regarding
causation of
insanity; and that these figures derive no value from the fact that
the statement
bears the signature of a medical man; for their value practically
depends entirely
on the character of the inquiry in which the information contained
in the de-
scriptive roll was in each case collected.
Untrustworthiness of
descriptive
rolls.
517. This inquiry is very
unequal in its character. The lunatic, before
being sent to the asylum, is
for a time under the
observation of the Civil Surgeon. The latter has to
certify to the man's insanity and to the facts which have led to
that conclusion.
Sometimes the Civil Surgeon fills up the descriptive roll as well
as the medical
certificate. But the more general practice is that he confines his
attention to