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possess the property of occasioning a torpor in the
limbs. The result is that blood becomes thick
and ceases to circulate. The thickness of the
blood results in stopping the circulation of the
light vapours which are called animal spirits and
they are (gradually) destroyed. This gradual
destruction of the animal spirits is accompanied
with a proportionate emaciation of the body of the
consumer of the drugs, especially that of the habit-
ual consumer thereof.
Fifth effect.
Lastly, the consumption of the drugs proves
beneficial or injurious according as the manner
of using them is good or bad. I give below the
various (uses or) manners of using the drugs.
Third answer.
The various uses to which the drugs are put
(and the different classes of persons who consume
them).
(The first class of consumers, i.e., patients who
use the drugs with the advice of physicians.)
Physicians prescribe the use of the drugs in two
different methods described below.
First method.
When Native Doctors of any school whether
Unani or Misrani (i.e., the followers of the Gre-
cian or Egyptian system of medicine) prescribe
the use of any of these drugs, it produces benefi-
cial and not injurious effects, for the following
reasons :—
(1) Because they prescribe its use only when it
is necessary owing to the medicinal properties (of
the drug concerned).
(2) Because they prescribe only such quantity
as may be used without fear of injury.
(3) Because they allow the patient to use the
drug only so long as it produces no injurious
effect (on the patient).
(4) Because they prescribe the use of the drug
in such a manner as may prevent the production
of its injurious effects on the patient.
Examples.
(1) When diseases are brought on by the excess
or ebullition of blood, or by the bodily humours
becoming too thin and therefore too rapid in their
flow—e.g., the piles, dysentery or diarrhœa—the
use of the drugs which owing to their cooling
property prevent the ebullition and (too rapid) cir-
culation of blood and make the following humours
dense, proves beneficial in curing such diseases as
are named above.
(2) Physicians do not prescribe the use of more
than three mashas (or 48 grains) of bhang at one
time, because they consider that the consumption
of greater quantity by a patient who is not a
habitual consumer thereof is injurious or even
fatal. The quantity of one dose of charas is much
less then that of bhang, one chitak (or nearly 2
ounces) of bhang being equivalent to one masha
of charas (so far as their medicinal effect is concern-
ed). One dry plant of bhang is not more than one
chitak in weight, and it does not yield more than
one masha of charas, and therefore one masha of
charas is equivalent to one bhang plant in effect.
(3) Physicians allow patients to consume the
drugs only so long as they consider its use neces-
sary for the purpose of curing a disease. But as
soon as the patient recovers, they do not allow
him to continue, and thus get accustomed to, the
use of the drug.
(4) Bhang is seasoned or prepared in the
following manner :—
A quantity of clean new and picked bhang
leaves is taken and smeared with a little ghi
(clarified butter) or almond oil It is then put in
an unused earthen vessel which is heated and the
juice of dub (a fine soft green grass) is poured over
the drug in drops and evaporated. This process
is repeated several times. The bhang thus pre-
pared is called mudabbar (or seasoned). But as
bhang has the injurious property of drying the
humours of the brain and thus rendering it weak,
even pure bhang, though seasoned and prepared in
the manner stated above, is not allowed to be con-
sumed by patients without the admixture of some
such medicine as almonds, or the seeds of gourd,
which counteract its injurious effect. And as the
use of pure bhang reduces the (normal) beat of
the heart, dries its humours and thus renders it
weak, such medicines as cardamoms, saffron, etc.,
are used with it to prevent its injurious effect on
the heart. It also congeals the humours of the
stomach and therefore diluent and resolvent medi-
cines as aniseed and kasni (endive) are used there-
with. The drugs also have a tendency to stop
urine, and therefore seeds of melon and cucumber
are used with them. The drugs in question have
also a poisonous and narcotic effect, and to remove
it, pepper, which has the property of an antidote,
is used with the drugs. They also dry up the
blood in the body, and therefore milk, which has
the property of increasing blood, is mixed with
the drugs before they are taken. They have also
a bad taste and therefore sugar is mixed with
them when they are taken, In the same manner
other drugs, etc., counteracting the injurious
effects of these drugs are used along with them.
Second method.
Physicians advise the patients to extract the
light and volatile particles of the drugs by the
following process and use them only and thus
avoid the risk of using the more injurious earthy
and poisonous particles of the drugs. The process
in the case of bhang is this :—
The bhang is put in water, milk and ghi, and
the mixture is boiled over a gentle fire. When
the water dries up and the milk becomes thick,
the ghi is taken out and clarified. This ghi pos-
sessing the virtue of the volatile particles of bhang
is mixed with other drugs and is used after being
made into pills or in the form of an electuary.
In the case of charas, it (charas) is mixed with
ghi and water and boiled. The ghi is then taken
out and used. Ganja is never taken as a medicine.
Second class of consumers—viz., habitual con-
sumers of bhang and charas.
Bad characters and villains assemble in large
numbers—say 100 or 200—in (outlying) groves
used as burial grounds, in the huts of fakirs or
goshains (i.e., Muhammadan or Hindu recluses)
whom they regard as their murshids or gurus (liter-
ally, spiritual guides or instructors—here used in
the sense of leaders) and drink bhang in very ex-
cessive quantities. (In fact sometimes) the quan-
tity of bhang consumed by each of them is one
chitak. And this is not all. After drinking
bhang they smoke charas and ganja in chillums
continually and repeatedly. They take with them
other persons, especially young men (not accus-
tomed to the use of the drugs), and instigate them
to consume the same. These poor fellows also be-
come (very weak in body and mind and so) unfit