566
ation with my own hand. I have the general
permission of the Superintendent to do this. I
asked Dr. Borah, and he said I might do this; so
I always do it. I do not now ask anybody's per-
mission in any particular case. What the lunatic
tells me, I enter on my own judgment. I make
the entry. I do not intimate it to the Superin-
tendent. The jemadar has no authority to do this.
All his entries are merely copied from the De-
scriptive Rolls.
I obtain my further information from the luna-
tics only. I very rarely see friends of lunatics.
The lunatics are some from tea gardens, and some
from other districts than this; so it is very rarely
that friends come to see a lunatic. I do not
examine them when they come; nobody does so.
Any friend would have to go to the Superintend-
ent for permission to visit the lunatic. But I have
never heard of the Superintendent examining any
friend; and I have never got any order to make
any entry in consequence of any such examination.
The Superintendent himself never makes any entry
in the General Register. Nor does he ever alter
any entry in it. Sometimes, when a Descriptive
Roll has not information, we send it back to the
Magistrate to be filled in under Rule 8 of the
"Revised Rules for Management of Asylums in
Bengal." We only send a Descriptive Roll back
when the entries are left blank. If the word
"unknown" were entered, we should not send it
back. This has been my practice all along.
It is from the entries in the General Register
that the statements in the annual report are filled
up. Statement VII is filled up from column 11
showing "alleged cause" and Statement VI
about type from column 9.
On looking up the admissions for the year 1892,
I observe that in the case of Akhilanand (No. 12)
the Descriptive Roll shows both the habits of the
man and the cause of insanity as "unknown."
Yet the jemadar has entered ganja smoking as the
cause. He is present now, and says he thinks he
must have asked the lunatic when he was received
into the asylum. All such entries are made then.
He has not authority to act thus. His duty is
to enter what is on the Descriptive Roll.
I find that similarly the cause is entered by the
jemadar as "ganja" in the cases of Mussamat
Bedoma (No. 2), and Mussamat Kitni (No. 11),
though the Descriptive Rolls show the cause as
unknown, and there is no mention of ganja in the
papers.
I see that the jemadar has made the entry of
"ganja" in the case of Uchit Ram (No. 8). The
jemadar says he took it from the entry regard-
ing habits in the Descriptive Roll. I think, on
the whole, that he ought not to have done this when
the Descriptive Roll distinctly said "No cause
can be ascertained." But at the same time, if a
man takes ganja, it is possible that he may
become insane, and this is why the entry was
made. It is better to enter a possible cause than
none at all. The Superintendent was not told.
I find also that entries have been similarly
made by the jemadar in column 11 (cause) from
the entry in the Descriptive Rolls regarding habits
in the cases of Sahebram (No. 15), Jagannath
(No. 17), Khadu (No. 19), Chadi (No. 23), Jogai
Surma (No. 28), and Mussamat Major (No. 1).
The jemadar did this on his own responsibility.
In another 1892 case, that of Kristo Dass
(No. 20), I find ganja entered in my handwriting
as the cause. The Descriptive Roll shows smoking
dhatura leaves mixed with ganja. The jemadar
was sick that day, so I made the entry. I saw
ganja mentioned, so I entered that. I did not
think of the dhatura specially. I understood
that ganja was the cause.
Thus, out of thirteen cases shown in the returns
for 1892 as the ganja cases admitted that year,
there are eleven in which the entries do not cor-
respond with the Descriptive Rolls. Of these,
ten were made by the jemadar on his own respon-
sibility, and one by me. The only two cases in
which the Descriptive Rolls show ganja as the
cause are those of Jalim (No. 14), and Bapu Ram
(No. 26).
Dr. S. Borah was in charge of the asylum in
1892. But no change has taken place in our
procedure since he left in May 1893. In the
General Case Book the entries at the head of each
case are made by the jemadar or by me from the
General Register. The history of the case after
admission is all that the Superintendent writes.
He writes that in his own hand always.
30. Evidence of PROSUNNO KOOMAR DAS, Baidya, Medical Practitioner, Silchar,
Cachar.
1. The experiences which I obtained during my
career as medical servant under the Tarapur Tea
Company and also as an independent medical
practitioner of long standing enable me to sup-
ply the information herein noted regarding the
effects of the use of hemp drugs generally; but
especially of ganja the use of which is chiefly pre-
valent in the district of Cachar.
2. Dr. Prain's definition can be accepted for
the province of Assam. The dry leaf of the male
plant whether cultivated or uncultivated is locally
known by the name of bhang or patti. The word
siddhi is not in use in the district of Cachar.
Charas is not in use generally and there is no
license for its sale here. A few up-country people
who use the drug import it from elsewhere. The
three varieties mentioned by Dr. Prain are used
here, although flat ganja has the largest consump-
tion. The round ganja is used by a few Hindu-
stani or up-country coolies and the chur ganja only
by poor people who buy it in very small quantities.
Distinction in the name is made much more by
the licensee than by the consumers. All the three
varieties are designated by the latter under the
general term ganja.
19. Ganja is generally used in smoking.
Habitual consumers chew it sometimes like betel-
nut. Occasionally it is made into a beverage
with milk, sugar and spices, etc.
The first
method however is the prevailing one in the dis-
trict, Charas as has been mentioned above is
used only by a few up-country people who import
it from other districts.
23. As far as my experience goes I have not
found bhang being ever used for smoking.
28. The average per diem is about, half a tola
worth about 1 anna 6 pies.
The general average for habitual consumers is
about half a chattack worth 7 annas 6 pies. In