367
30. As a rule, each of these three drugs are
generally taken in solitude, but they are some-
times also taken in company. It is mostly con-
fined to the male sex and after infancy in some
cases, but it is generally taken by adults. Women
of the better class never take to the use of these
drugs. But I have heard that women of low
class, and some low class prostitutes, are addicted to
taking these drugs. Some children, say over 10
or 12 years of age, also do take these drugs, but
their number is not large.
31. The use of consuming any of these drugs
at first begins with bad company, which afterwards
forms into a habit. However, it is not difficult to
break it off, if the consumer so minds it. When
once a habit is formed, there may be a tendency
in the case of any of these three drugs for the
moderate habit to develop into the excessive.
32. It is a custom amongst the Hindus to
drink siddhi on the night of the Bijaya day of the
Durga Puja, as is enjoined by the Hindu Sastras.
Most people drink it in moderate quantities on
that day, and they do never take it afterwards.
It is not likely to lead to the formation of the
habit, or otherwise injurious.
36. Yes, as far as I have heard, I have reason
to believe that alcohol is now being substituted
to a certain extent for these drugs. But, as my
information is hearsay, I cannot attribute any
cause for this change; neither can I cite any proof.
I merely state my information for what it is
worth.
37. The effects of ganja-smoking and charas-
smoking are nearly the same, both being very
heating and producing costiveness. A habitual
consumer is apt to get dysentery, brain disease;
and it may finally bring insanity. They are not
used in Aurvedic medicines. The effect of drink-
ing siddhi is also the same, if taken in excessive
quantities. But to drink it in mild doses removes
looseness of the bowels, and it also serves as an
aphrodisiac. The Aurvedic Sastras prescribe the
use of it, and its seed in the preparation of the
Aurvedic drugs. According to the Aurvedic Sastras,
siddhi is heating, digestive, stringent and narcotic.
I annex hereto extracts* from the late Dr. Uday
Chand Datta's Hindu Materia Medica, in which
he has described the various uses which are made
of it in the Aurvedic medicines, as well as of the
various uses of it and its kindred products, the
ganja and the charas as intoxicating agents.
Besides the uses mentioned in the said extracts,
there are other uses, but these will, I think, suffice
for establishing its medical properties.
39. As I have already stated, I have not much
experience about the smoking of ganja and charas,
but with reference to siddhi, this much I can say
that drinking it in moderate doses is less injurious
than the smoking of the former.
40. Yes, vide my answer to question 37. I do
not know if any of them are used in the treat-
ment of cattle diseases.
41. I have already stated that I have no parti-
cular experience of ganja and charas, but I have
heard that their smoking gives stimulus to work
and alleviates fatigue. But I know that drinking
bhang and the medicines prepared with it remove
looseness of the bowels and impotency. I do not
know whether they are febrifuge or preventive of
diseases in malarious and unhealthy tracts.
42. I do not think the moderate use of ganja
and charas to be harmless, because it causes costive-
ness giddiness and affects the brain. But siddhi
and its seed being admixed in an atomic quantity
with other ingredients in the Aurvedic medicine, is
beneficial.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use of
any of these drugs on the habitual consumer is
constipation, astringency, intoxication, exciting
appetite. It is refreshing till the intoxication lasts
(which lasts for two or three hours), after which
reaction sets in, and the result is giddiness, thirst
and costiveness Yes, the want of subsequent
gratification produces longing and uneasiness in
the case of habitual consumers.
45. Yes; it causes constipation, affects the brain
and consequently leads the consumer to commit
acts of criminality. Yes; it impairs the consti-
tution. Yes; it injures the digestion and finally
causes loss of appetite. Yes; I know it causes
dysentery, and I believe, owing to its heating
power, it can cause bronchitis or asthma.
Yes; it impairs the moral sense and induces
laziness and habits of immorality, as it affects the
brain. I have come across several cases in which
the excessive use of ganja and siddhi has produced
insanity. In those cases it has appeared to me to
be both the exciting and the predisposing cause.
Insanity produced by it is of the same type as
ordinary insanity. In some cases it was tem-
porary, and in others permanent. The symptoms
may be re-induced by the use of the drug after
liberation or restraint. Yes; persons deficient in
self-control, through weak intellect, are most apt to
get insanity by the use of hemp drugs.
46. This has been answered along with ques-
tion 45,
47 and 48. Have no knowledge.
49. Yes; it is practised by some persons as an
aphrodisiac. I am told some low class prostitutes
use it as such. I do not think its use for this
purpose is more injurious than its use as an ordi-
nary narcotic. I do not think it tends to produce
impotence.
50. The same answer as against question 49.
56. See my answers with regard to questions
29 and 37.
57. I do not know.
155.—Evidence of BINOD LAL SEN,† Baidya, Kaviraj, Calcutta.
1. My humble opinion is based on my ex-
perience as a practising physician in Calcutta and
its suburbs for the last 25 years, the opportunities
1 have had in the treatment of patients that were
under my treatment, the hemp drugs used by me
in my practice, and the various occasions I have
had to consult the several Ayurvedic books in
practising, as also in editing certain Ayurvedic
treatises.
2. Besides the names applied to the hemp
plant, viz., siddhi or bhang, subji or patti, there
are several Sanskrit names for the same, viz.,
* The extracts alluded to were not forwarded to the Commission.
† Was invited to appear at a meeting of the Commission for oral examination, but failed to appear.