REPORT
ON THE
LUNATIC ASYLUMS IN BURMA
FOR THE TRIENNIUM 1909—1911.
Statement I.
Accommodation and Population.—During the triennium 1906—08, the Asylum
population having shown a large increase from 466 to 587 with an average yearly
increase of 40 patients, there was necessarily difficulty in finding space in the
Asylum which was originally intended to accommodate only 429 inmates, calcu-
lated at 50 superficial feet per patient. With a view to relieve the overcrowding
in the Rangoon Asylum, the new Asylum at Minbu was opened on the 25th April
1907 with accommodation for 106 patients and the accommodation space in
Rangoon was also increased so as to house 448 inmates ; yet on the 1st January
1909, it was necessary to find accommodation in Rangoon for 476 patients.
During the year 1909, therefore, the nominal accommodation of both the Asylums
was increased from 554 to 625 by temporarily reducing the area per head from
50 to 46 superficial feet in Rangoon and 36 in Minbu ; the accommodation was
again increased in 1910 to 657 by a further reduction in superficial area per head,
in Rangoon from 46 to 43. To further relieve congestion 19 patients were
transferred to various Indian Asylums during the triennium under review.
Statement I.
2. Quarters for four male and two female Europeans, a cottage for 16 crimi-
nal lunatics, a ward for 10 healthy females and a Hospital Ward of 4 beds, were
completed and added to the Asylum buildings in Rangoon. By the erection of
some of these buildings, the total temporary accommodation in this Asylum was
increased to 520 in 1911. While in Minbu consequent on a rearrangement allowing
72 superficial feet per patient in a Hospital Ward of 3 beds and including 5
solitary cells which contain less than 36 superficial feet, the accommodation
available for criminal male lunatics was slightly reduced from 141 to 136. Thus,
while the total accommodation at the two Asylums was increased from 554 on
the 1st January 1909 to 656 on the 31st December 1911, the number of patients
to be accommodated has only increased by 32 during the same period, thus the
yearly average of increase of lunatics has, it is satisfactory to note, fallen from
8.6 per cent. in the triennium 1906—08 to 1.8 per cent. during the three years
under review.
Statement I.
3. Admissions.—The number of admissions has fallen from 188 in 1909 to 163
in 1910, and has again slightly increased (to 169) in the last of the three years under
review. The daily average strength has shewn a steady increase during the
triennium having risen from 604.87 in 1909 to 627.33 in 1910 and 629.67 in 1911,
the increase being marked in both sexes. Overcrowding has specially occurred
as usual among the criminal male lunatics and among females of both classes.
The maximum population on any one night during the triennium under review was
678 in both the Asylums. The necessity for the early construction of a New
Lunatic Asylum in the Province is becoming very apparent. The erection of any
more quarters for patients in any of the existing Asylums is very inadvisable.
In describing the present state of Asylum accommodation Captain Shaw writes
as follows: —" The European sections continue very defective and individual
treatment is practically impossible, unless the existing rules of the Asylum be
ignored. * * * *