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not likely to be brought on by moderate use of
the drugs as stated above.
47. Not necessarily hereditary, and does not
produce any injurious effects in their children.
48. Not necessarily hereditary, but produces
ill-effects on the brain and constitution of their
children.
49. Not to my knowledge.
50. Excessive use of these drugs may produce
impotence.
56. I am unable to answer.
57. Such cases have not fallen under my notice.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I am in the Government service.
I was educated at the Calcutta Medical College,
and received the L. M. S. diploma. I have been
seventeen years in Government service, and fifteen
of that period was passed in these provinces. I
have had no experience in lunatic asylums.
Question 32.—I have seen cases of insanity in
which the patient was insane for a week or ten
days. It cannot be called intoxication when the
attack is so prolonged. Dhatura is occasionally
mixed with bhang, but not specially at these
festivals. I have no reason to suppose there was
admixture of dhatura in the cases I have referred
to. I have not seen such cases at other times of
the year. The patients were not ganja-smokers
in these cases. There were three or four such
cases altogether. The cases differed from intox-
ication in other respects than the duration of the
attack. The difference between intoxication and
derangement by bhang consists in the patient
being in the former case stupefied and in the lat-
ter light-headed and irrelevant. Irrelevance is a
symptom not observed in ordinary bhang intoxi-
cation, which only lasts four or six hours.
Question 37.—When I say that bhang is mild-
er, I mean that it attacks the brain less rapidly,
but at the same time it causes intoxication, which,
though less violent, is of longer duration than that
caused by ganja and charas, and it therefore
affects the brain more. I have seen more cases
of insanity from bhang than from the other forms
of the drug. The comparative action of the dif-
ferent forms of the drug is comparable to the in-
halation of chloroform and its administration by
the stomach.
Question 45.—In my answer on the point of
insanity, I do not mean to say that the moderate
use would cause insanity. I refer to the excessive
use.
Question 46.—About 10 months ago I was
called in to treat a young robust man of about 25
years of age. He had taken bhang for about three
or four years, and had gradually increased his dose
up to 4 oz. per diem. He took this quantity for
about three mouths. One night he became suddenly
maniacal. These details were told me by his re-
lations. He came round after two months' treat-
ment. I was called in the morning after he
became insane, and found him in the stage of
acute mania. I believed the statements made to
me to the effect that he had taken nothing but
bhang. He used to drink his bhang at home and
by himself. For three weeks he was quite insane,
and he then began to show signs of improvement,
which continued until his complete cure. The
patient and his relatives denied that he had taken
alcohol. I satisfied myself that he had not taken
alcohol, or opium, or any admixture in his bhang,
I enquired for hereditary taint of insanity and
epilepsy and found none. I ascertained that he
did not lead a debauched life. I don't remember
asking him if he frequented the society of sanya-
sis.
A Hindu lad, of about 22 years of age, was
brought to the hospital in Jaunpur by his rela-
tions, in order that I might keep him under ob-
servation to ascertain the state of his mind. The
observation was connected with some civil dispute
and the capacity of the patient for managing his
affairs. He had been insane for three years then,
and I was told that he had begun to take bhang
at 12 years of age. He was brought to the hos-
pital 14 years ago, and I had him under observ-
ation for 3 days. As he lives in the city I saw
him at intervals for ten years afterwards, and he
never recovered his intellect. I know the family,
in which there is no history of insanity. The
young man did not drink liquor and was not, as
well as I remember, of dissipated character or
habit. I have every reason to believe that he was
of sound mind until he was 19 years old. He left
school at 12 years of age after his father's death.
He then took to bhang. It was the guardian of
the boy who moved the court to declare the boy
incapable of managing his affairs. It was the
guardian who was to get the management of the
estate when the boy should be declared incompe-
tent. Drugs are administered sometimes to minors
with the object of impairing their intellect, so
that others may be benefited thereby. The above
is the only case of permanent insanity of which
I have any recollection. The typical symptoms
mentioned in my answer 45 were only observed in
the case of temporary insanity which I have
related, and not in that of permanent insanity.
The symptoms observed in the case of permanent
insanity I have related were consistent with the
theory that insanity might have arisen from
other causes than bhang.
Question 48.—I have seen cases in which the
habit of consuming the drugs to excess has caused
the children to be weak in intellect. I can recall
the families of two brothers, one of whom took
bhang to excess and the other took the drug
moderately. The excessive consumer died at 50
years of age. Both brothers had families. The
children of the excessive consumer, a boy and
three girls, are weaker in intellect than the
children of the other brother. He had been an
excessive consumer for a very long while. It is
not uncommon to find branches of one family
differ in intelligence. The boy has been relieved
of the management of his affairs by his cousin.
This was done by mutual agreement. He gave
up his property five years ago, when he was 25
years of age. The father died twenty years ago,
and I never saw him. I never heard the relative
intelligence of the two mothers discussed, nor
that of the fathers.
vol. v.
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