306
material which you kindly offer to supply.
Moreover, there are no funds available here for
chemical materials, apparatus or assistance. The
very small endowment of the laboratory is entirely
absorbed in carrying on the aconite research, in
fact we are already in debt. I have discussed
the subject of ways and means with many of those
who are interested in pharmacological research and
the suggestion has been made that the Govern-
ment of India might be disposed to make a grant
in aid of the special investigation, which is of
so much interest and importance to the country.
The work of ascertaining the precise mode of
action on the body cannot be properly done until
some pure chemical substance has been isolated.
Perhaps you would be able to influence the Indian
authorities to make some small contribution to the
work. So far as I can judge, it would take about
two years to complete the chemical work, assuming
that I could have assistance with the purely
routine work, and the cost could be defrayed by a
grant of £500.
Several well-known scientific men have
offered to use their influence with the Indian
Government to induce them to make such a grant,
but before any steps are taken I should like to hear
from you what the best steps to take would be,
and what likelihood there is of success.
I have been much interested in reading your
voluminous report on the subject, which is of the
greatest value to any one who is thinking of
working on the subject. As regards the chemistry,
the work is excessively difficult, and only those
who have had special experience with such
enquiries are likely to come to any definite con-
clusion. Many of those who have already dealt
with this side of the subject are evidently not
qualified for the task.
If you will kindly let me know what should be
done, in conjunction with Mr. Huillon Dyer, I
will take whatever steps you may recommend.
It would be easy to get the Pharmacological Com-
mittee of the Royal Society, of which I am
Secretary, to make a representation on the subject.
Its members are:—T. R. Fraser, M. Foster, Lander
Brunton, J. T. Cash, W. T. Dyer, H. E. Arm-
strong.
APPENDIX.
Further report submitted by DR. PRAIN.
Dated Sibpur, the 27th April 1894.
From—SURGEON-CAPTAIN DAVID PRAIN,
To—The Secretary to the Board of Revenue, L. P.
With reference to your No. 400B., dated 26th
February, with reminder No. 104B. of 4th April
and No. 120 of 20th April, I have the honour to
say that I have delayed supplying the information
called for, in the hope that I might be able to
associate the results of my observations with
those obtained by the Chemical Examiner to Gov-
ernment, as, without the latter, any report that
can be submitted must be necessarily quite incom-
plete. The Chemical Examiner, however, has for
many months been closely engaged in the examin-
ation of other samples of ganja than those belong-
ing to the Board sent to him for report by the
Hemp Drugs Commission, and as the reports for
the Commission were more urgently called for
than those for the Board, the examination of the
samples referred to has of necessity had to stand
over. As, however, I am about to proceed on
furlough to Europe, I deem it my duty to submit
a brief report dealing merely with the physical
condition of the samples.
2. The case of ordinary "flat twig" and ordi-
nary round ganja may be first considered. The
boxes containing these were opened by the Chemi-
cal Examiner, not by me; but that officer has
very kindly permitted me to inspect the samples.
The samples stored in the ordinary way in gunny,
with straw, and placed in deal boxes with air holes
bored at frequent intervals in their sides, were
found to be in perfect order and were judged to be
of excellent quality. Those, however, that had
been tinned up were found to have a slightly dif-
ferent odour; not the characteristic odour of good
round or flat ganja, but a distinctive and (as com-
pared with the other samples) a slightly disagree-
able smell. The smell is in fact that which char-
acterises Gurjat ganja as opposed to Rajshahi
ganja, and indicates without doubt the occurrence
in the drug, when air is quite excluded, of some
fermentation process. It will of course depend
entirely on the result of the Chemical Examiner's
chemical and physical examination whether ganja
so tinned up may be said to have in any way de-
teriorated from the pharmaceutical and excise
points of view. But there is no doubt that as a
commercial article the tinned drug at the end of
twelve months is not so valuable as the untinned.
3. As regards the ganja converted into chur and
compressed into cakes, which I was able, through
the kindness of the Collector of Excise, to examine,
the same observations have to be made. The
services of Mr. Siddons, Assistant Collector, were
placed at my disposal; and Mr. Siddons not
only accompanied me to the gola, but kindly ar-
ranged our visit for a day when there would be a
number of dealers and users of ganja present, who
might give a commercial verdict on the result of
the experiments.
Those cakes that were stored in gunny, with
straw, in the same way that ganja is usually
stored, were found to be in appearance exactly as
when stored.
The on-lookers readily recognised and distin-
guished the cakes of round and of flat ganja, and
though they were not willing to admit that these
"new-fangled" cakes were as good as ordinary
round ganja of the same age, they were constrain-
ed to admit that the ganja in them was rather
better than chur. For my own part, I felt in-
clined to agree with the dealers. These cakes had
not quite the nice fresh distinctive smell of a good
sample of round ganja, but there was no disagree-
able smell; and the impression of dustiness which
chur conveys was quite wanting. As regards the
cakes stored in tin, however, the results were
most unsatisfactory. The ganja of these had a
very disagreeable smell when the tins were opened,
the same fermentation smell (that of Gurjat
ganja) mentioned in connection with other tinned
samples, but much more intense. Whatever the
results of its chemical examination may be, as a
commercial article the ganja cakes kept in tins are
valueless.
4. The process of fermentation that goes on in
the tinned samples of the drug is most probably
related to the moisture that the ganja originally
contains. As has been said, the smell which indi-
cates it was far more intense and disagreeable in
the cakes than in the ordinary ganja tinned up a
year ago. The cakes were made at Naogaon
from ganja freshly made and just brought in for
export, and they were tinned up on the spot.
They most probably, therefore, contained more
moisture than the ordinary round ganja which,