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69. I have never known the wishes of the
people to be consulted by Government officers
before establishing a ganja shop in any locality.
To my mind there can be no doubt that the wishes
of the community ought to be consulted and res-
pected on such occasions.
Oral evidence.
Question 1. —It was in a few bad cases that I
paid wages to workmen's wives. I did it because
I f o u n d t h a t g a n j a s m o k e r s w a s t e d t h e i r m o n e y .
I can recall the names of the men in a couple of
c a s e s . I n t h e s i l k f a c t o r y I s e l d o m h a d m o r e
than 250 hands. In the indigo factories the
number ran up to 1,000 at times. It is so long
ago that it is only the general impression which
remains in my mind. Ganja smokers were not all
wasteful, but there were cases in which I was
confident that wasteful living was caused by use
of ganja. Most of the hands belonged to the
lowest classes. I knew most of the men and
acted on my own knowledge of the workpeople.
The husbands sometimes ill-treated their wives in
consequence of my paying the wages to the
women. Liquor is permitted to be consumed by
all the lower class people in Bengal, and most of
them drink if they can get it. I am not prepared
to say whether the workmen indulged in liquor to
excess or not. Sometimes the spendthrifts I have
referred to had other vices which caused them to
waste their money. I was within 20 years of age
at the time I am talking of, and it is 20 years ago.
I am not justified in saying as a fact that the
wasteful habits of these people were due to the
ganja habit. I had not sufficient knowledge of
all their habits,
Question 15.— I refer in this
smoking of the bhang leaves. The boiling of the
bhang may have been preparatory to other uses
than smoking.
Question 16.—The drug I refer to in the first
part of this answer is bhang. The latter part of
my answer is suggested by a plant grown in my
father's garden which was blown down or fell by
some other accident, and which the gardeners
appropriated for smoking. The plant was, I
think, sown from seed contained in some ganja.
Question 20.— A tobacco smoker— and nearly
all men of the lower classes in Bengal are such—
would not hesitate to accept a pull at a chillum
containing ganja which was being' smoked by his
companions.
Question 24. —The preparations called modaks
are soft solids.
Question 27.—The very poor classes rarely have
anything to do with bhang. If they get it, they
would smoke it, or pound it up into a bolus. It
would be a sort of makeshift for ganja.
Question 29. —I have seen " aghoris" putting
dhatura seeds into the chillum.
Question 32. —I have actually seen two young
men, one of whom is now filling a good position
and the other is dead, take heavy doses of bhang at
the Dasera, and in spite of all our efforts to rouse
them, they did not recover full consciousness till
midday the next day. The drug was prepared by
an old cook, a ganja smoker, and was supposed to
be bhang prepared with the usual admixtures. I
do not remember that any others of the company
were overcome in the same way as the boys. I
was about 17 years of age and drank of the mix-
ture. Some intoxication came over me, but I was
quite well the next morning. The intoxication
came on in five minutes. The feeling was that
the bed with me on it was being raised and.
lowered. The boys must have drunk more than
I did.
Question 35. —When I was young it was the
fashion for a good many among the well-to-do
classes to indulge in some intoxicant or other.
Most took opium in pills. Some took ganja on
the sly. Few now take either of these drugs in
consequence of the fashion having leaned to alcohol.
I have said that the lower classes would follow
this fashion. I consider the hemp habit, as we
see it, to be preferable to a change for alcohol to
be consumed to the extent it is among the lower
classes in Europe. The sale of alcohol would in-
crease if the consumption of hemp were stopped.
Question 39.—The feet of ganja-smokers in
Bengal frequently bear corns on the soles. In
such cases they walk tenderly.
Question 45. —The ganja smoker is unreliable
and bad tempered. He cannot be trusted to obey
orders or keep his engagements. In reference to
my remark regarding hereditary taint in one of
the three cases, I would say that in the second case
there was information that the father of the boy
who became insane was at one time himself insane.
Both the Brahmin lads took alcohol. I don't
think the Bania did or the man in the fourth case.
I cannot speak about the habits of these boys with
reference to profligacy. I cannot be certain that the
boys smoked pure ganja. They did not smoke in
my presence, and would not be likely to tell me
what they smoked. The one who died of demen-
tia was never violent. He tried to commit suicide.
I knew him well, but lie would not look at or re-
cognize me. I am not aware that during 18
months he ever recovered his senses. I was told
of no such temporary recovery. I saw him some
months after he had been brought home in the
state of dementia. I am sure of the hallucinations
I described in the other case. I have met this
man lately; and could not find out if he still
smoked ganja. The Bania went to the Murshida-
bad or Dullunda Asylum. I met him in Calcutta
in 1890 or 1891, and he is doing very well. His
name is Romesh or Romsha, and lie keeps a stall
selling vegetables. I cannot say if any of these
cases was preceded by mental trouble. One of them
was idle and fell into the company of ganja smo-
kers. He was not criminal or vicious. I am
usually certain that the Bania had nothing serious
on his mind. The fourth case did not go into the
asylum. There was no history of epilepsy in the
family of either of the four cases. I have known
some two or three dozen of cases of people who went
insane from various causes. I remember the case
of one young man in Raipur who went insane from
ganja. I don't think this young man was given
to drinking. I use the terms "amentia" and
"dementia" as I find them in books of Medical
Jurisprudence and similar works. If " amentia"
means congenital idiotcy, it should be changed to
" mania " in my answers.
Question 48. —The two young men described in
my answer cannot be held to be instances in point,.
because the father had other bad habits, and the
youths themselves indulged in ganja,
Question 53. —There can be no doubt the San-
yasi was a ganja smoker who used to consume the
drug to excess, but I cannot say from my personal
knowledge that he had been indulging on that
day, although I am morally certain he must have
been. I have no recollection of a crime committed
by a ganja smoker in which the perpetrator was
unaware of what he bad done. It appears to me