549
19. Evidence of SURGEON-MAJOR J. MULLANE, Civil Surgeon, Dibrugarh.
1. Observations on the prisoners committed to
prison in the Gauhati Jail extending over a period
of seven years.
3. In the Kamrup district the hemp plant
springs up spontaneously in almost every patch of
cultivated ground.
4. This ganja was simply called jungly ganja.
6. Dense.
7. No.
16. The wild plant is commonly used as an in-
toxicant by those who cannot afford to purchase
the cultivated article.
40. Yes. Native physicians prescribe ganja.
I have frequently seen the wild plant being dried
on the roofs of native houses and on question-
ing the inhabitants was informed that it was
intended as a medicine for cattle.
41. (a) No.
(b) Yes. The use of ganja enables the consumers
to withstand severe exertion and exposure.
(d) Its continued use wards off sleep.
43. Yes, moderate consumers are inoffensive to
their neighbours.
45. During my experience as a Jail Superin-
tendent, cases have frequently been sent to me as
dangerous lunatics (to be passed on in due course
to the lunatic asylum). Such lunacy being the
result of the long-continued and excessive use of
ganja, these cases invariably recover in Jail
within ten days. This variety of delirium is gene-
rally of a noisy, violent character, the patient
being much exhilarated. I never knew of any
other treatment than total deprivation of the drug
having been tried; this, however, was uniformly
successful.
Among natives there is a widespread belief
that the mortality among ganja consumers from
bowel complaints is heavy.
51. In this neighbourhood the Assamese
proper are, as a rule, non-consumers of ganja.
The ganja consumers are generally foreigners and,
as a rule, belong to the very lowest grades
amongst such foreigners, and, as might be ex-
pected from their social position, they do furnish
a considerable proportion of the bad characters of
the neighbourhood. I do not consider that the
moderate use of ganja exercises (more than any
other intoxicant) any direct influence on the
production of crime.
52. I have known crimes of violence to be
committed on little or no provocation by persons
labouring under the peculiar delirium produced
by a long-continued course of ganja. In fact
people in this condition are, in my opinion, parti-
cularly dangerous, being extremely easily provoked
to commit crimes of violence.
53. See answer to preceding question. Yes,
most undoubtedly. Persons labouring under the
peculiar delirium produced by the excessive use
of ganja are particularly liable to commit man-
slaughter on little or no provocation. I have
known more than one such case.
54. As a rule ganja is not used by the
Assamese for this purpose. Instances, however,
have from time to time occurred where ganja has
been used for this purpose by foreigners, resident
in Assam.
55. No. Complete stupefaction cannot be pro-
duced by ganja alone.
Oral evidence.
I have been nearly seventeen years in India. I
was four years in military employ (generally com-
bined with civil in the Punjab), and have been
thirteen years in the plains districts of the Assam
Valley. I have had no experience of insanity,
except the jail work in India, and six months in
a District Asylum in Ireland. I have not special-
ly studied insanity.
Question 16.—My grounds for this statement:
I was asked by Mr. (Sir) Charles Elliott, Chief
Commissioner, to make some experiments in 1884
in the Gauhati Jail to ascertain whether the wild
ganja was ever consumed by the people. There
were then four or five confessed ganja consumers in
the jail, all foreigners, i.e., not Assamese. I gave
them only wild ganja to smoke and to drink, and
some would chew it. They all smoked it, and
were very glad to get it. I picked the wild plant
myself in the villages. I pressed it between
sheets of blotting paper like botanical specimens,
and they got this. It was about the beginning of
the hot weather. The plants were flowering. I
also questioned the men. They said they much
preferred the cultivated article, as the intoxicating
effect was not so great in the wild plant; but they
said they were glad to get the latter when they
could not get the cultivated plant. I wrote out
a slip for Mr. Elliott on the subject, giving him all
the information-—not in the form of a report—
and sent it to him.
I remember where the plants were got. The
plant is found in old cultivation almost invariably.
But I have seen it growing in places almost two
miles away from the nearest house. It is in Di-
brugarh, Kamrup, and Goalpara, the three dis-
tricts where I have served.
I have seen the wild drug used myself outside,
dried and smoked, but only by the very poor.
They were all people who knew me well, and knew
that it was none of my business to bring them to
justice.
Question 45.—I myself know of no case of
permanent insanity produced by ganja. I know
of one case in which ganja was alleged as the
cause, and not improbably it was the cause. But
I could not certify to that as the sole cause. This
man was sent to the Tezpur Asylum some three
or four months ago.
The temporary cases I describe in my answer
are attributed to ganja, because the police reports
described the men as ganja-eaters, and they them-
selves confessed it while in jail. The violent
delirium in hemp cases differs from the delirium
due to other causes. Some jailors can infallibly
tell you what is a ganja case. The ganja patient
has a very high idea of himself. He is somebody
very great or very sacred, far and away removed
beyond ordinary people. This is the one symp-
tom I found always constant in these cases
There were no after-symptoms that I noticed,
except very violent, very excited, and generally
a dangerous class of persons to deal with. As a
rule, these symptoms do not occur in insanity due
to other causes. In other cases, the insanity
assumes nearly always the form of depression. I
think that the short duration of the cases is a