64
cases set down to ganja. I cannot give any opi-
nion as to the percentage from my own experience.
I only know what has been stated to me by
others. From my own experience, however, I am
strongly of opinion that the excessive use of ganja
is sometimes the cause of insanity.
Question 44.—The bullock driver I refer to was
five or six years in my service, and is now a culti-
vator of respectability. I do not know whether
he was a regular smoker. He used to smoke
when we were on long fatiguing journeys. He
was a good and trusty servant.
Question, 45.—The opinion which I state re-
garding the connection between ganja and insanity
is based on my experience. There was a case in
Sironcha. A Native Christian named Francis
was a constable about twenty-three or twenty-four
years ago. His case stands out in my memory,
for I knew him well. He had no liquor habit.
He took to smoking ganja. I saw him one day
dancing about outside kacheri in a very excited
state. He had to be put under restraint. He was
(as far as I remember) sent to the Nagpur Asy-
lum, and I lost trace of him. He was only 21 or
22 years of age. I knew a little of the family ;
and I did not know of any insanity in his family.
I do not remember his parents. I knew him in
hospital. He had no epilepsy or syphilis to cause
insanity. I knew nothing of any admixture being
used. I had had complaints of the man's use of
ganja. I do not remember how long he was under
observation before being sent to the Asylum.
I was then doing magisterial work as well as
my own duties in Sironcha.
I remember a case of two baniyas who were
travelling. They met people who induced them
to smoke ganja in a friendly way ; there was no
crime in this case. The baniyas had never smoked
before. One of them disappeared. He had gone
into the jungle. Search was made. The man
was found three days later quite off his head.
He was off his head under my observation for
about a week also. He recovered gradually and
completely. The other man was not affected.
The affected man was incoherent, but not violent.
When he recovered, he remembered the smoking
but nothing later. This case was over twenty
years old. The man was about 26 or 28 years
old, a strong and well-developed man, with no
appearance of being accustomed to the use of
drugs.
I can give no recent instances of a man going
off his head from ganja.
The case above recorded is the only case of
insanity in a constable due to hemp drugs that
has come before me in my service. I know of no
cases of dismissal from the force arising from men
going off their head from ganja.
I have no doubt whatever from my Indian
experience that ganja may be a cause of insanity.
I believe the two cases I have given above to have
been due solely and entirely to the use of the
drug. The diagnosis of ganja insanity is attend-
ed with great difficulty, for there are no
characteristic symptoms I believe. I could not
diagnose a case of ganja insanity with the aid of
existing literature on the subject. I do not know
the physiological action of the drug experiment-
ally. Ganja insanity is looked on as a variety
of toxic insanity. Insanity caused by a poisonous
drug is toxic insanity. Alcoholic insanity is
another example. In it there are tissue changes
in the brain. I have no experience such as would
enable me to say whether there are such tissue
changes with ganja or not. Nor can I say
whether there would be any particular symptom
or group of symptoms running through a series
of cases. The diagnosis of ganja insanity would
be based on a combination of symptoms and the
history of the case. In asylum cases we get (1)
the statement of the Civil Surgeon as to (a) what
he has observed himself, and ( b) what has been
communicated to him by others; and (2) the
Police report forwarded by the Magistrate in a
prescribed form. It is filled in by the police.
In the case of sending a lunatic to the Civil Sur-
geon for observation the Magistrate sends an order
with the form or statement filled in by the police.
Then the Civil Surgeon fills in his medical
certificate. The same police form is sent with
that medical certificate to the asylum when the
man is sent there. I have never, as Civil Sur-
geon, seen any necessity to alter anything in the
police form. I attach no importance to the form
as enabling me to decide the question of the man's
sanity or insanity. It may throw side light ; but
the opinion of the police has no weight with me
whatever. The Civil Surgeon's certificate refers
to the man's condition during the period of observ-
ation only. The Asylum Superintendent has
nothing to go on in regard to the history of the
case prior to that period except the police form.
In assigning a cause to madness, the previous
history is of course the most important matter.
As a rule, the Civil Surgeon would not make
inquiry into matters beyond the form or statement
referred to. But I have often made inquiries from
relations who have come with a case so as to try
to get some history. I think the form is generally
signed by the police. I would not accept without
question the police statement that ganja was the
cause of insanity in cases when the form showed
no other cause. I would accept it provisionally
or tentatively. I would not order further inquiry.
I would not attribute the insanity to anything
else unless something occurred to show that this
was clearly not the cause. I think that there is a
tendency to assign causes too readily ; and I quite
agree with what Dr. Rice, then Civil Surgeon of
Jabalpur, said in the Lunatic Asylum Report
of 1880, regarding the untrustworthiness of the
material at our disposal. In cases of rapid re-
covery I should be disposed to assign ganja as the
cause of insanity if there was any previous history
of the drug. I would not accept the theory that
ganja is only an exciting cause of insanity in
persons already predisposed to insanity.
36. Evidence of SURGEON-MAJOR H. K. MCKAY, Civil Surgeon, Nagpur.
19. Charas is not used in Nagpur. The leaves
of ganja are used in Nagpur by the ordinary con-
sumers to make a drink, and also bhang massala.
The Marwaris use the true bhang, which is very
expensive.
23. No.
28. Twenty grains of ganja form one chillam,
and the price is one pice. An habitual ordinary
consumer will smoke three or four pipes a day—
one in the early morning, one atmidday, and
one or two at night. The excessive consumers
may smoke to any amount.