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diagnostic mark of hemp drug insanity. If I had
a case of these symptoms and a short duration and
no ganja history, I should in this country be very
slow to believe that it was not due to ganja.
I
should regard these symptoms as proof positive that
it was ganja intoxication.
I call it intoxication for want of a better word.
It is more like delirium tremens and produced in
the same way, only the character of the peculiar
insanity being different. I believe that permanent
lesions occur in ganja as with alcohol; but it has
not fallen to my lot to have any proof of this
placed before me. I think there must be perma-
nent lesions, because that condition of things
could not, in my opinion, be frequently produced
in the human brain without producing permanent
lesions.
Question 52.—I can recall to mind at the
present moment three men sent to jail charged
with murder. All of them were under that state
of ganja delirium which I have described, and
the police papers showed no sufficient motive.
The cases were far apart in time. Two of them
got penal servitude for life, I think. I cannot
remember about the third. One was, I think, in
Gauhati in 1885.
One was in the Dumduma
(Dibrugarh district) bazar in the hot weather of
1891. I cannot recall when the third was.
It
was in Gauhati about ten years ago. I cannot
recall it to mind. I know there have been other
cases; but these are all I can remember. It was
on these three cases that I founded my answers
to questions 52 and 53.
In the Gauhati case of 1885 the man was
brought in. The police reported he had commit-
ted murder while insane. My head jailor, an
experienced man, suggested doubt as to the insani-
ty. I went to the place where the murder had
been committed, and discovered on inquiry that
both the prisoner, a religious mendicant, and the
murdered man had been under the influence of
ganja. I advised the Magistrate, Mr. Archibald
Campbell, to put off the trial that the man might
recover. He took about a fortnight to recover
and was then tried. I gave evidence. He was
sentenced to transportation for life by either Mr.
Luttman-Johnson or Mr. Ward. I think the
former. This is the only case in which I can give
details. I took so much trouble about it, and had
trouble getting him to the Andamans afterwards
so it impressed itself on my mind. He was
troublesome in jail about his religious customs,
and a big stalwart man among puny, weak, jail
officials. He talked to me freely about his ganja.
I do not think he took anything else with it.
Question 45.—The temporary cases I have des-
cribed here recover in jail and never proceed to
the asylum. The cases are not common. At
Dibrugarh, where I am now, the population take
ganja largely. I have there about one case in six
months perhaps. As a rule it is the foreign ele-
ment that take ganja largely; and in the Dibru-
garh district there is a larger proportion of
foreigners than in any other district in the valley.
There are a large number of insane persons sent
to the Tezpur Asylum from my district, Dibru-
garh, probably more than from any other district
I have served in. The cause of this is that there
is a large tea garden population. In other dis-
tricts there are families and friends who look after
them. But in Dibrugarh they are not so looked
after. They are foreigners. When they become
insane an effort is at once made to get rid of them.
They have therefore to be taken by the police.
I do not believe that the insane population is larger
in Dibrugarh than elsewhere.
These cases are sent to me for observation.
The Senior Magistrate at head-quarters sends them
to me. He sends a short account—any statement
of the nature of the man's insanity which he may
have happened to receive. It is in a printed form.
It is only sent for the information of the Civil
Surgeon, and does not go further than the Civil
Surgeon. It is generally very meagre, just the
name and description of the man, and the place
he has been sent from, and some statement about
his character, as violent, etc., or any act of vio-
lence or mischief he has done. The cause of
insanity is hardly ever given.
As to the descriptive roll there is no hard-and-
fast rule. It is sometimes filled up by
me.
Sometimes only parts of it are sent to be filled up
by me. Sometimes it is filled up from information
supplied by me. It is a joint production of the
Magistrate and Civil Surgeon.
I write out a regular report. This is divided
into two parts. This medical certificate is invari-
ably written by the Civil Surgeon. It contains
(a) facts known to the Civil Surgeon personally,
and (b) facts communicated by others.
Both
these sets of facts are simply evidences of insanity.
They are afterwards used to fill up parts of the
descriptive roll. I am not responsible for any
thing which is not contained in the medical certi-
ficate. And my responsibility in regard to the
descriptive roll is limited by the medical certificate.
I supply nothing in the descriptive roll beyond
that.
It is my duty to state anything that I can
ascertain as to the cause of insanity. Thus, if I
ascertained that a man had received an injury to
his head or was addicted to the use of ganja, it
would be my duty to report it. That report
would be contained in the medical certificate.
If
there is no mention of cause in the medical certi-
ficate, it means that I have ascertained nothing
satisfactory connected with the case.
I cannot say, therefore, what was the cause of
insanity in the case of the woman Kitni sent up
in 1892.
I had not seen the descriptive roll
before I dealt with the case. But now I see from
it that nothing was known of the woman.
I
remember the case of Akhilananda (1892) very
well. It was suspected at the time that it was
ganja. I heard about ganja at the time.
But
I
had no positive evidence at the time as to
whether he took ganja. He was a man difficult
to get anything out of.
He remained silent and
morose
From this I rather disbelieved the ac-
count I got that he took ganja. In my opinion,
the symptoms were inconsistent with ganja.
On
that account I disbelieved the statement made to
me.
I do not remember the case of Chadi (1892).
The noisy and violent character is consistent with
ganja. I cannot now say whether the symptoms
were typical. I do not remember the case of
Khadu (1892). But my certificate shows symp-
toms which are inconsistent with the ganja
theory.
I remember the case of Jaganath (1892).
I
learned afterwards that the man suffered from
epilepsy; and his case is one of that variety of
insanity which is associated with
epilepsy.
I
ascertained that he had had epilepsy in the jail.
I remember I had heard that he used to take
ganja; but I had rejected that in certifying to his
case. I did not think his symptoms consistent