298
the cost of their maintenance is recovered from
them or their friends; but justice seems to demand
something more than this, even though the diffi-
culties of the law may stand in the way" (H. C.
Cutcliffe, F.R.C.S.—Annual Report, Dacca Lunatic
Asylum for 1869.)
16. "The statement of re-admissions has little
or no technical interest. In many of them re-
current insanity means only repeated intoxication.
In others re-admission means the return of an ac-
quitted criminal, who had been discharged to take
his trial, and whose proper place would be among
the cured; and a third group is composed of
persons removed by relatives and brought back
from difficulty or expense in managing them at
home. This is an illustration of the manner in
which, with a population composed of classes
which have little or nothing in common, figured
totals and mean numbers designed to represent
collections of simple and similar facts in the life
of each, may become mere heterogeneous aggre-
gates of dissimilar units." (A. J. Payne, M.D.—
Annual Report, Dullunda Lunatic Asylum for
1871.)
17. "The case returned under this head [acute
dementia] was a domestic who had smoked ganja
to such excess that reason disappeared and left
him a mere animal in his habits. He, however,
made a rapid and satisfactory recovery.
"Under the head of ganja the largest number
are as usual included. The ratio this year is less
than formerly. An endeavour has been made to
distinguish between the occasional consumer
and the habitual smoker. The former cannot
properly be classified in the same list with the
latter, yet in this asylum it has been the practice
to do so. The ganja smoker who really appre-
ciates its value, never becomes a spirit drinker.
Spirituous liquors do not produce the sensual
intoxication he desires, and the after-effects are
not pleasurable." (James Wise, M.D.—Annual
Report, Dacca Lunatic Asylum for 1871.)
18. "Fifty per cent. of the insanes are set down
as 'cause unknown.' This is rather opprobrious,
due doubtless to the cause at the time of admis-
sion being undiscoverable, or rather to its being
left to those whose report obtains the Magistrate's
order to transfer the patient to an asylum." (J.
Coates, M.D.—Annual Report, Moydapur Lunatic
Asylum for 1871.)
19. "The number [of cases] attributed to
ganja is 169 out of 230 admissions, in which a
cause was known, but it may be that it has be-
come the habit to attribute insanity to ganja.
The Lieutenant-Governor would be glad to have
it specially noted in the reports if there are gener-
ally good grounds for setting down this drug as
the cause in so many cases. The reasons for the
belief should, if possible, be stated."
(Govern-
ment Resolution on Asylum Reports, 1871, Ben-
gal. Sd. A. Mackenzie.)
20. "A true knowledge of causation of insanity
can only be obtained from a very careful investi-
gation of particular cases and their antecedents,
and an extensive knowledge of the social peculiari-
ties and practices of individuals and communities.
Observations, such as Drs. Wise and Coates have
recorded, contribute more to the elucidation of the
causes of insanity than any number of "tables"
which have an appearance of precision, but are
really most inaccurate and unworthy of trust.
Statement No. 10 shows the usual large proportion
of cases attributed to the use of ganja and spirits.
The remarks of Drs. Coates and Wise would go to
show that Indian hemp is in many cases erroneously
credited with madness otherwise caused. It would
also appear that this drug has little or no influence
as an incentive to crime; and the figures given in
Statement No. 10 show that the proportion of
ganja-caused insanity among criminals is less than
among non-criminal lunatics. No doubt, as Dr.
Wise states, thieves and murderers smoke hemp in
order to nerve themselves to criminal deeds previ-
ously resolved on, but the drug does not appear
specially to arouse any homicidal or criminal pro-
pensities." (J. Campbell Brown, Inspector Gene-
ral Hospitals, Bengal.—Annual Report on Asylums,
1872.)
[Many acts of violence committed by persons
intoxicated either with bhang or ganja represent
merely the uncontrolled action of the animal
passions. The controlling power of the higher
nervous centres once removed, by hemp drugs,
alcohol, or anything else, the individual will either
become quarrelsome and violent, or melancholic
and maudling. There is not in my opinion any
specific property in hemp drugs which incites to
violence or crime.—J. H. T. W.]
21. "Although a cause has been assigned in all
but 20.6 per cent. of the cases, it is impossible
to place much reliance on the correctness of the
statements sent in by the police, for it is to them
we have to trust for obtaining the little inform-
ation we possess.
"An attempt has been made this year to distin-
guish between those cases of insanity clearly due
to ganja smoking and those in which the use of
ganja has only been occasional, and therefore
insufficient to excite insanity. The attempt
has not been successful. For want of any other
reason, it has been necessary to enter under the
heading ganja several who were merely reported to
have indulged in its use. In 1871 there were
returned 37.2 per cent. of the total treated under
the head of ganja. In 1872 the proportion was
31.60, namely, 28.26 males and 3.34 females.
"I believe that ganja is less deleterious than is
generally supposed, and that insanity is com-
paratively as rare among the ganja smokers as
among persons who take a daily allowance of
spirits. Like drunkenness, ganja produces physi-
cal as well as psychical effects. By causing
irritation, and probably changes in the nutrition
of the brain, it gradually undermines the consti-
tution. Its effects on the digestive organs,
however, are less perceptibly injurious than are
those of spirits. By exciting the emotions, it
enfeebles the mind, and by the loss of self respect,
it incapacitates the individual for discharging his
usual avocations. Poverty, and all the anxieties
which accompany an irregular life, oblige him to
drown care in deeper intoxication, which sooner
or later ends in madness.
"Among those classes of natives who spend
most of their time in smoking the weed, madness
is exceedingly rare. With them ganja smoking is
an incentive to religious abstraction, and its unli-
mited use is a sure sign of religious sincerity.
"The Ramawats, who are the greatest smokers
in Eastern Bengal, seldom, if ever, become mad.
They, as well as other natives who exceed in
smoking ganja, invariably live very well; and
they maintain, that as long as plenty of food is
taken, its effects are innocuous.
"The diet of a Ramawat usually consists of milk
two seers (4 lb), ata 11/2 lb, ghee four ounces, and
vegetables and fruit ad libitum. During the last
six years none of those luxurious mendicants have