OFFICE OF SUERGEON-GENERAL
                                                WITH GOVT. OF MADRAS,
                                                OOTACAMUND, 7th July 1881.

                                    No.O/40.

From

    W. R. CORNISH, Esq., F.R.C.S., C.I.E.,

                Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras,

To

    C. G. MASTER, Esq.,
        Acting Chief Secretary to Government,
                                                    Judicial Department.

SIR,

I HAVE the honor to forward, for the consideration of the Honorable the
Governor in Council, the reports of the Medical Officers in charge of Lunatic
Asylums in this Presidency for the year 1880-81, with my own observations, on
asylum administration during the year.

2.  Accommodation.—The asylum accommodation is sufficient for 538 males and
165 females, total 703. The largest number of patients confined on any one night
of the year was males 278, females 95, total 373. These numbers show an advance
of 30 over the largest number of the preceding year. Efforts are made to keep down
the accumulation of chronic cases of a harmless character by relegating them to
care of friends, when the latter can be found and are willing to undertake the
responsibility of looking after their demented relatives. The natives of India do
not readily send their insane relatives to a public asylum. The earlier signs of
insanity are often overlooked or disregarded, and it is only when the conduct of
the insane comes under notice of the Police or Magistrates that the asylums are
thought of. On this account the demand for asylum accommodation is not likely
to increase very fast, and the present buildings are quite adequate to immediate
necessities.

                            GENERAL RESULTS.

3.  The abstract table below shows the general results of treatment as com-
pared with similar figures of preceding years.

The proportion of recoveries to admissions in 1880-81 was 41.20 per cent, and
of deaths to daily average strength 12.81. The recoveries were nearly in the same
proportion as in 1879-80 and the general rate of mortality somewhat less and
much below the average of the five preceding years. So far as the general physical
condition of lunatics was concerned, there was a great improvement in their condi-
tion in comparison with the past years of scarcity and famine :—

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