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                                                     GOVRENMENT OF MADRAS.

                                                        JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT.

READ—the following paper:—

From the Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras, to the Chief Secre-
tary to Government, dated Ootacamund, 24th September 1888, No. 0-532.

ABSTRACT.—Forwarding report on Lunatic Asylums for 1887.

ORDER—dated 5th November 1888, No. 2284, Judicial.

The Surgeon-General with the Government submits the report on the working of
the three Lunatic Asylums, viz., Madras, Vizagapatam and Calicut, in the Madras
Presidency for the year 1887. The following statement contrasts the chief results of
the year with those of 1886:—

2. Seven hundred and ninety-seven patients were under treatment during the
year, as compared with 768 in 1886 and 727 in 9 months of 1885. The growth in
total population, however, is due less to any increase in the number of admissions

than to the accumulation of chronic cases
in the asylums; for, though more patients
were admitted in 1887 than in 1886, the
figures of the former year are nearly
exactly the same as the average of the
past five years, as shown in the margin.
The number of inmates rose from 590 at
the beginning of the year to 627 at the
end, and the average daily population
from 588.48 in 1886 to 621.28. From
the comparison of accommodation with
population made by the Surgeon-General, it is evident that in each of the asylums
nearly all the available space is occupied, the balance in the Madras asylum being
probably due to the full space provided for European insanes not being occupied. It
will soon be necessary to consider further the question of providing increased accom-
modation, especially for those classes of lunatics which are most numerous. In 1887,
there was a large increase in the admissions and numbers of criminal lunatics; 54
were received against 14 in 1886, and the population of this class at the end of the
year had risen from 108 to 184, while several were under detention in jails for want
of room in the asylums.

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