LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BENGAL.                                           17

Disease causing
mortality.

28. Causes of Mortality.—These are shown, in detail, in Statement No. 8. Dysentery
and diarrhœa are again the most frequent causes of death, and account for 39 casualties,
or 33 per cent. of the whole number. Phthisis and Pneumonia give together 22 deaths,
or about 20 per cent. Debility, exhaustion, anæmia, and dropsy or what may be termed,
cachectic conditions, account for 17 deaths, or about 15 per cent. Diseases of the brain
caused 14 deaths, or about 12 per cent. Cholera contributed only 4 deaths, and the remaining
20 do not suggest any particular remark, except that the paucity of deaths from fever is very

Chest disease at
Dacca.

striking. The number of deaths from diseases of the organs of respiration—phthisis, and
pneumonia—in the Dacca Asylum, is brought out in remarkable contrast to the other asylums
by this table. Dr. Wise has discussed the subject so well, that I have nothing to add to
what he has written, except to impress the great necessity of providing more accommodation
for the lunatics confined in this asylum. Nearly one-half of the deaths in the Dullunda

Dysentery at
Dullunda.

Asylum were caused by dysentery. Dr. Bird's remarks on the low, nervous stamina of the
insanes, and the necessity of carefully watching and nursing them, are very true. The
number of deaths from dysentery in the Dullunda Asylum has, however, been higher than in
any of the preceding seven years. I am unable to account for this circumstance.

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