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haling ganja may have a similar effect. I know
three men within a hundred miles who are ordered
to give up smoking tobacco for some months.
Three or four cigarettes bring on bronchial trouble.
I know a number of natives who use hemp whose
constitution is not impaired at all. It is on my
observation generally that I say I have not observed
any impairing of the constitution.
The insanity was the illness I was asked to deal
with in the cases mentioned in the last paragraph
of answer 45. The sentence would be clearer by
putting the clause from " except" to " police"
within parentheses. The lunatics referred to in the
last sentence are lunatics whose insanity is said to
be due to the use of hemp drugs; and of them I
mean to say that when they are emaciated their
emaciation is due to their excitement and not to
other illness. I have never had any experience of
deterioration or injury from either moderate or
excessive use, though excessive use should theore-
tically cause ill-results.
In regard to insanity I have long thought that
the moderate use of hemp drugs does not produce
insanity, but that it prevents it. I have for many
years believed that the moderate use of hemp and
opium is one of the reasons that there is so little
insanity in the country. I have never seen a case
of insanity from the moderate use of hemp.
Question 46.—I am of opinion that the con-
tinuous excessive use of the drug would probably pro-
duce insanity in most cases if the consumers lived
long enough. But I have no experience of it. I
have no positive proof in any case of insanity that
has come before me. In the case of excessive use
there is at first delirium and intoxication, which
grows longer and longer in duration as the excess
is continued. Then at last the man gets into the asy-
lum, is locked up some months, and then discharged
cured. He comes back again perhaps until he is a con-
firmed lunatic. I have seen several cases that indi-
cated the whole line of this history in the asylum
records. It is on this that I base the opinion
regarding the probable connection between insanity
and the excessive use of the drugs. I think,
however, that hemp would often be only the
exciting cause of insanity in persons suffering from
mental weakness or trouble; and such people would
be the very persons to go in for the excessive use
of the drug. I do not think that a man of
thoroughly sound mind would go in for the con-
tinuous excessive use of the drug, as the effects of
excess on the brain are so striking. The number
of cases of insanity supposed to be due to hemp
drugs in asylums is considerable, but not large.
By " excessive indulgence" I mean in this connec-
tion " indulgence to absolute intoxication." The
same amount of hemp would not necessarily be
excessive in two separate cases; and I do not
believe that insanity would be produced by any
dose, or repetition of doses, not producing absolute
intoxication.
In regard to the cause of insanity, I accept the
alleged cause shown in the Magistrate's papers as
final, unless it has to be altered on further inquiry
from relatives or from the man if he recovers. If it
were stated that the man used ganja or other hemp
drugs, but it was not alleged to be the cause, it
would probably be put down as insanity due to
ganja. In most cases put down to ganja, the man
recovers, and you have a chance of further inquiry,
and he confesses to the use of the drug. I have
always distinguished between the moderate and
excessive use. If I heard from relatives of a man
being a smoker, I should ask if the man got drunk
from it, and how frequently. This information
would not be fully recorded in the history of the
case. An entry would probably be made that the
relatives or the man himself said he constantly
smoked ganja. The word "nasha" would be the
word I would use for intoxication. Men have also
frequently used the word "behosh." I should
say that if the same number of people took alcohol
as take ganja, in this country, there would be
more insanity ; for I think alcohol more injurious;
when a ease comes to me as Civil Surgeon from
the Magistrate for observation, no information as
to the history of the case comes with it. I never
got a form giving any information in such cases.
I have nothing in such cases to say to the cause.
I merely certify that the man is insane and give
my grounds for the opinion. I would put in a
statement as to cause if I had satisfactory evidence.
But that is not my business. It is exceptional for
me to enter the cause; for I have not ordinarily
means of ascertaining. The man is usually brought
by the police and not long under observation.
The state of things is quite different when cases
come to me as Superintendent of the Asylum. Then
I get information as to cause. There we accept the
magisterial statement as to cause, unless we find
ground in information given by the relatives or the
man himself for altering this. I think that the
magisterial statement as to cause is generally
correct. I mean that when ganja is assigned the
man was probably a notorious ganja-smoker. The
inquiry may be conducted by a chaprasi, yet he
might be right in that. If the Civil Surgeon were
to certify, then we would follow him. I have
never had a case of the Magistrate and Civil Sur-
geon clashing. There is very seldom any mention
of cause in the medical certificate.
In the cases that have come before me as hemp
drug insanity cases, I have noticed no typical
symptoms. There are some common symptoms I
found, but when I carried inquiry further I found
they were not markedly typical. They might
each and all have been due to other causes than
hemp drugs, such as injury to the head, fever,
epilepsy, alcohol, insufficient food, mental anxiety,
grief. I know these points are not all consi-
dered in the inquiry on which the magisterial
entry as to cause is based. Knowing this, I do
not hesitate to accept this entry subject to further
inquiry where such further enquiry is possible. I
accept it because it is the only thing I have.
Question 57 (a).—The allegation of increase to
which I refer was based on some ephemeral liter-
ature on the subject I had been reading.
81. Evidence of SURGEON-MAJOR W. H. CADGE, Civil Surgeon, Fyzabad.
1. For ten years in charge of a Central Prison,
and for four years in charge of a Civil Station and
District Jail.
41. During a very unhealthy season, and when
grain was also dear, I gave a small quantity of
bhang to prisoners of weak and feeble constitutions
in the Fyzabad Jail as an aid to digestion, and was
much struck with its good effect, particularly in
those who were neurasthenic.
(a) Bhang undoubtedly aids digestion by acting
as a sedative to the alimentary canal and a nervous
stimulant in the same way as alcohol.
(b) Bhang does give staying-power; it enables
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