297
four or five hours, and is followed by depression
proportionate to the quantity consumed.
45. Once I was called in to see a bairagi, head
of a religious endowment. He was a habitual
smoker of opium and ganja. He was a ghastly
skeleton of bones covered with the skin. As for
his mental condition, he was then engaged in
litigation. I have no information of his morals.
A boy of about fourteen was one night picked
up unconscious by the police from the street. The
next morning he was found to be a perfect imbecile,
unable to articulate any other words than ganja and
fire. He could not recollect even his own name.
The previous history of the boy was not known to
trace his mental condition either to heredity or to
ganja, of which he was smelling when first seen.
The formation of his head seemed quite natural.
There was an intense craving for the drug. There
was no information available as to the daily quan
- t i t y u s e d . P r o b a b l y i t w a s e x c e s s i v e , j u d g i n g
from his condition when first found.
49. Yes. Vide No. 40.
53. Some time ago I had to see a person who
had used a preparation of hemp for a week or ten
days as a sexual stimulant. He became a melan
- c h o l i a c w i t h r e p e a t e d a t t e m p t s a t s u i c i d e .
In another case the person had used the drug,
or rather a preparation of it, for a similar purpose
for about a month. While using the drug, his
friends observed some strangeness in his manners.
Then came a rude mental shock, ending in violent
mania with homicidal tendency. The malady
gradually assumed a chronic form, carrying off the
patient in a couple of years. During his insanity
he would frequently talk of the drug, and some
- t i m e s w o u l d a s k f o r i t .
Oral evidence.
1. I studied at the Madras Medical College,
and obtained the certificate of L. M. S. in 1887.
I served for three years in the Bellary district
and three years in Tanjore. I have had no spe
-cial experience of insanity or any special training
in that branch of medicine. The cases I refer
to were at the dispensary and in private practice,
and they are described more in detail in answers
45 and 53.
45. I did not treat the bairagi. I only saw him
once, and apart from his own statement that he
was an habitual smoker of opium and ganja, I
learnt nothing whatever of his history. I cannot
therefore judge whether his condition was due
to other causes than the habit he confessed to.
The only reason for mentioning his case is his
emaciation, which may or may not have been due
to opium and ganja.
The boy of fourteen I sent to the Madras Lu
-natic Asylum. The case came to me at Adoni
in the Bellary district, when I was in charge
of the Municipal dispensary. The Magistrate
sent the boy to the lunatic asylum on my re
-port. He went direct from Adoni to Madras.
I drew up the necessary documents. The case
occurred in 1888. I don't remember at the moment
what cause I entered in the certificate.
53. The first case in this answer was a patient in
my private practice. He had swallowed a dose of
patent medicine with the object of committing
suicide. I was called in, and was told by his
friends that he had been taking a preparation
of hemp as an aphrodisiac. I don't know what
the preparation was composed of. The patent
VOL. VI.
medicine was one for treating scorpion sting,
and quite distinct from the aphrodisiac. The
patient had previously attempted to commit sui
- c i d e
b y t h r o w i n g h i m s e l f i n t o a w e l l , I w a s t o l d
he had been out of his mind for three or four days
before I was called in. He was under my treat
- m e n t , a s w e l l a s I r e m e m b e r , f o r a b o u t a f o r t n i g h t ,
and recovered completely. 1 treated him for the
poison and not for melancholia. He was impotent
by his own statement, and had been in that state
for four or five years. He was about 30 years
of age. He said the preparation of hemp had
had no effect, and he had increased the dose be
- c a u s e i t h a d p r o v e d i n e f f i c i e n t . H e w a s t a l k i n g
nonsense when I first attended him. Though he
recovered from the poisoning he did not regain
full possession of his will till a month after I first
attended him. I knew him before he began to
take the hemp drug, and his ultimate condition,
after he recovered, was the same as that in which I
formerly knew him. I made his acquaintance
three or four months before he began to take the
hemp drugs. He was then living with his fa
- m i l y , c o n s i s t i n g o f m o t h e r , w i f e , b r o t h e r a n d
sister. I have not known the suicidal tendency
to show itself in persons who supposed themselves
impotent. His relations, whose acquaintance I
made, were sound in intellect. I do not remem
b e r s e n q u i r i n g i n t o t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e p a t i e n t ' s
family further back than his father, who, I learnt,
was a respectable man. I made no other enquiries
as to the cause of insanity. The use of the hemp
drug was the one fact mentioned to me, and I ac
-cepted it. As well as I remember, he had a daugh
-ter 6 or 7 years old. I know insanity arises from
other causes than ganja, and therefore I think I
must have made enquiry whether the insanity was
due to other causes than ganja, but the use of the
hemp drug was the only fact which made an im-
-pression upon me. When I said that I made no
other enquiry as to the cause of insanity, I meant
no other enquiry regarding heredity, The hemp
drug could not have been the only fact mentioned
to me, but it was the fact which appeared to
me to furnish an adequate cause of the insanity.
I do not remember now if I made any enquiry
into the cause of insanity. As far as Iwas con
-cerned, it was a case of poisoning, and I did not
treat the patient for insanity. I knew the mem
-bers of the patient's family, and had already
learnt that the father was a respectable man.
There was therefore no reason for me to enquire
about them, and as well as I remember I did not
enquire.
The person, the subject of the second cas e de
- s c r i b e d i n 5 3 , w a s b r o u g h t i n t o A d i r a m p a t n a m t o
his brother, a Salt Inspector, whom I had k nown
for one month previously. The man was insane
when he was brought in, and I saw him within
two or three days of his arrival. During the next
month or so I saw him four or five times. He
was always in the same condition. The Salt In
-spector was then transferred, and took his brother
away with him. I heard of his subsequent history.
I asked the Salt Inspector the details of the case,
and he told me what I have stated in my answer.
The hemp preparation was said to be one of the
aphrodisiacs commonly prescribed by the native
doctors, and I was told that the mental shock was
caused by a letter impugning the character of his
wife. I don't know how the Salt Inspector got
information about the insane's history previous to
his arrival at his house. I did not make any
enquiry into the cause of insanity beyond asking
the Inspector whether the patient was insane from
his birth or how, and the inspector told me of his
2s