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confess to the use of the drug, hut often at first
they will deny it. I am inclined to think that
ahsecess of the liver may be induced by excessive
use of these drugs.
46. As regards the excessive use of these drugs,
their effects are the same as in moderate use, only
more marked.
47. Not necessarily. And I don't think it would
affect the children.
48. There can be no doubt that the habitual
excessive use of these drugs, more especially charas
and ganja, would have a deleterious effect on the
children of the consumers.
49. It is said to be so used, but I have never
seen it. I don't think the moderate use of bhang
would produce impotence. I have never heard of
its use in excess.
50. It certainly would produce impotence.
56. I have no reliable information on this ques-
tion; but the dhatura leaves and seeds are no
doubt used by classes who wish to have the intoxi-
cating effects of these drugs quickly and surely
produced.
57. By those who use charas and ganja in ex-
cess, these are often eaten as a pill to produce the
intoxicating effects more surely.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I have been sixteen years in the
service, and seven years in civil employ. I have
held charge of lunatic asylums for a year, about
six months at Benares and the same at Bareilly.
I have had charge of jails. I had no special ex-
perience of insanity at home.
Such general opinions as I have expressed about
the use of these drugs, and the habits of the people
in regard to them, are based on information re-
ceived from educated natives and others. Speak-
ing generally, my attention has not been specially
drawn to the use of these drugs, except to a cer-
tain extent in regard to my asylum experience.
Before this inquiry, I had not my attention drawn
to the different effects of different forms of the
drug. By educated natives I mean men like
Assistant Surgeons and other educated natives
who came to visit me. I found my information
fairly reliable as a rule. I remember one of these
Assistant Surgeons ascribing bhang to henbane.
He knew the plant but thought the Indian hemp
was henbane. There would be to some extent
similar effects from henbane and Indian hemp.
Question 45.—I should like to explain this
statement a little. I do not think that the mode-
rate use of bhang would cause any of the evil
effects mentioned. I mean bhang drinking. Bhang
is usually drunk. It is rarely smoked.
My opinion in regard to the moderate use of
ganja and charas is that the evil effects might be
produced in certain cases even by moderate use,
but as a rule not. Some cannot stand the drugs
just as some cannot stand tobacco. I should not
be prepared to attribute to the moderate use of
these drugs any further evil effects than to the
moderate use of tobacco. I do not think the
moderate use as a habit is harmful. I should like
then to transfer my remarks here to answer 46,
which deals with the excessive use.
I exclude in the above remarks the special effect
of these drugs on the intellect. I think that even
the moderate habitual use of these drugs may
perhaps in certain cases cause a temporary in-
sanity,
By moderate use I should say about ganja and
charas that from two to three drams (60-grain
drams) a day would be a moderate dose. I mean
the stuff sold in the bazars. That is my general
idea of what would be a moderate dose. More
would be excessive. I put charas as the same as
ganja, meaning the adulterated charas obtained
in the bazars, which is all I know. It is what
I went round to see in the Bareilly bazar. My
estimate is entirely based on talking to people
since recording my written answers, and enquir-
ing from them as to consumption.
I think that such moderate use combined may
produce temporary insanity, because I have been
told by certain people who had been insane that
they used about a tola a day—that is, 180 grains.
There is one case that I particularly remember
just now. He was insane at the time. The man
was an out-door patient at Barabanki when I was
Civil Surgeon there about eight or nine months ago.
He was brought by his friends to the dispensary in
a state of great excitement, laughing inordinately,
and apparently suffering from mania. He was
twenty-five or twenty-six years old. His friends
told me he was a moderate charas smoker for some
years. He had once or twice before, they said, had
fits of this kind, gone out of his mind. They could
not give any definite statement as to dates but they
said the fits lasted for a short time. I cannot re-
member any definite time being stated. They alleg-
ed no special bout or other special circumstances in
this occasion. The man remained more or less
out of his mind, for three or four days. He was
brought daily to the dispensary. Then he was
discharged as " cured." I made a certain amount
of enquiry as to the man's history, especially as
to heredity; but the answers were so indefinite
as to be quite unsatisfactory. The people did not
seem to knew. The people said they were his
" bhais." I do not know the degree of relation-
ship. They said he had not the liquor habit.
There was no statement as to venereal excess or
anything of that sort. I could find no evidence
of dhatura or other drugs ; they said it was only
charas. So far as I was able, I excluded other
hypotheses. So far as I could ascertain, the case
was due to charas without any other cause exist-
ing. I consider the case fairly well established ;
that was my opinion of it.
I know of no other case of temporary insanity
from these drugs.
The man was out of his mind as a man in de-
lirium tremens is out of his mind, and it lasted for
three or four days. I therefore call this tempor-
ary insanity and not intoxication.
Question 46.—As to excessive use, I think it
sometimes impairs the constitution. I have also
found men who smoked to excess with bronchitis
and asthma; but it is hard to say whether they
may not have taken to the drugs to relieve their
complaints. I know one similar case in respect to
tobacco, and here also it would be hard to say
which was cause or effect. I have heard that peo-
ple suffering from bronchitis and asthma have
taken the smoke of these drugs in the idea that it
relieved them. I have seen ganja and charas
smoked. There is no special effort: just a quiet
pull like a man smoking a cigarette. The cases
to which I refer occurred in my dispensary prac-
tice. I have been in the habit of associating the
use of hemp and these diseases for some time
before this inquiry.
I had two cases in the Bareilly dispensary
of abscess of the liver which I attributed to
charas. Both men said they had smoked charas