Office of the Surgeon-General

with the Government of Madras,

Madras, the 16th April 1915.

No. 63/401.

From

The Hon'ble Surgn.-Genl. W. B. BANNERMAN,

C.S.I, K.H.P., m.d., D.Sc, I.M.S.,

Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras,

The CHIEF SECRETARY to GOVERNMENT,

Public Department.

Sir,

I have the honour to submit, for the information of Government, the following report on the Lunatic Asylums in the Madras Presidency for the triennium ending 1914.

2. Census of 1911.—At the last census of the Madras Presidency 8,407 persons were returned as insane—a proportion of 232 per 100,000 of the total population—an extraordinary low rate of incidence when compared with that which obtains in European countries. On the 1st January 1912 the total number of certified insane persons in England and Wales was 135,661, and the proportion of certified insanes to the estimated population was 371*2 per 100,000.

3. As pointed out by Mr. Molony, in his interesting Census Report, there is little doubt that the prevalence of insanity amongst the people of this Presidency is grossly understated by these figures, just as it was understated in Europe in former times. It is not necessary for our purposes to refer back to mediaeval times when insanes were regarded as bewitched or possessed of evil spirits. If we refer back only half a century, to the year 1859, we find that the reported insanes in England then only amounted to 186*7 per 100,000 of the total population, or about half the present proportion.

4. The true explanation of the astounding difference between the insanity incidence in Madras and in Europe is probably to be found in the fact that vanity and insanity are relative terms, and that the standard pf sanity is lower in the Madras Presidency than in European countries, just as the standard of sanity was lower amongst English people fifty years ago than it is now. The increased keenness of the competitive struggle, the fineness of the margin between success and failure, the intensity of application to business and to pleasure, the higher standards of living, the worship of financial and social success, the discontent with conditions which satisfied preceding generations, and the view of life exhibited by the business maxim of ^u Get on or get out" have in Western countries produced conditions in which only the intellectually fittest can survive. Many who, in less strenuous times, would have pursued their inconspicuous, if eccentric, way from their cottage cradle to their village grave, have been found now a days to clog the wheels of the social machine, and have been bundled into the lunatic asylums. In these days we look in vain for the " Davie Gellatleys " of " sixty years sinco " m the country villages of home, they havo all gono to swoll the numbers of the asylum population.



	Office of the Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras, Madras, the 16th April 1915. No. 63/401.

	From

	The Hon'ble Surgn.-Genl. W. B. BANNERMAN, C.S.I, K.H.P., m.d., D.Sc, I.M.S., Surgeon-General with the Government of Madras,

	To

	The CHIEF SECRETARY to GOVERNMENT, Public Department.

	Sir, I have the honour to submit, for the information of Government, the following report on the Lunatic Asylums in the Madras Presidency for the triennium ending 1914. 2. Census of 1911.—At the last census of the Madras Presidency 8,407 persons were returned as insane—a proportion of 232 per 100,000 of the total population—an extraordinary low rate of incidence when compared with that which obtains in European countries. On the 1st January 1912 the total number of certified insane persons in England and Wales was 135,661, and the proportion of certified insanes to the estimated population was 3712 per 100,000. 3. As pointed out by Mr. Molony, in his interesting Census Report, there is little doubt that the prevalence of insanity amongst the people of this Presidency is grossly understated by these figures, just as it was understated in Europe in former times. It is not necessary for our purposes to refer back to mediaeval times when insanes were regarded as bewitched or possessed of evil spirits. If we refer back only half a century, to the year 1859, we find that the reported insanes in England then only amounted to 1867 per 100,000 of the total population, or about half the present proportion. 4. The true explanation of the astounding difference between the insanity incidence in Madras and in Europe is probably to be found in the fact that vanity and insanity are relative terms, and that the standard pf sanity is lower in the Madras Presidency than in European countries, just as the standard of sanity was lower amongst English people fifty years ago than it is now. The increased keenness of the competitive struggle, the fineness of the margin between success and failure, the intensity of application to business and to pleasure, the higher standards of living, the worship of financial and social success, the discontent with conditions which satisfied preceding generations, and the view of life exhibited by the business maxim of ^u Get on or get out" have in Western countries produced conditions in which only the intellectually fittest can survive. Many who, in less strenuous times, would have pursued their inconspicuous, if eccentric, way from their cottage cradle to their village grave, have been found now a days to clog the wheels of the social machine, and have been bundled into the lunatic asylums. In these days we look in vain for the " Davie Gellatleys " of " sixty years sinco " m the country villages of home, they havo all gono to swoll the numbers of the asylum population.