267
specially sought for with the microscope. Mi-
croscopic examination would be essential for the
detection of these changes.
Except that both alcohol and hemp drugs are
exhilarants or inebriants, these two intoxicants
are not analogous. It is in the objective symp-
toms they produce that they are analogous. I
understand that I am being examined exclusively
about the medicinal and pathological effects of
the drugs. I consider that physiologically they
act in a different way. In the smaller doses both
hemp and alcohol are exhilarant. The effects of
larger doses of hemp are distinctly narcotic,
whereas alcohol is not a narcotic, but induces a
condition of coma when taken in large quantities.
This condition is one from which an individual
would be aroused with much difficulty, whereas
the narcotic effects of Indian hemp are transient
and of short duration. Here I speak of the
medicinal use of the drug as a narcotic, not of
the use of the drug otherwise. I am discussing
solely medicinal effects. Alcohol would produce
hyperæmia of the brain. This condition, if
allowed to continue, gives rise to structural
changes. Hyperæmia from any cause, if allowed
to continue, will give rise to structural changes.
I do not experimentally know what the structural
changes produced by hyperæmia through hemp
drugs are; but assuming that they are produced,
I should say that it would not be possible to
distinguish them from those produced by alcohol.
104. Evidence of SURGEON-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL A. CROMBIE, M.D., Surgeon-
Superintendent, General Hospital, Calcutta.
1. Chiefly as Superintendent of the Dacca
Lunatic Asylum for seven years, and Member of
Standing Committee for advising Government
with regard to criminal lunatics.
2. I have no experience except with regard to
the smoking of ganja.
3. and 14. I offer no observations in these
chapters (II and III).
19. In Dacca and Eastern Bengal the use of
hemp is confined almost exclusively to the smok-
ing of ganja.
20. Ganja is smoked to a large extent by the
boatmen, but also by the agricultural classes
generally.
21. I believe flat ganja is mostly used.
23. I think not in Eastern Bengal.
24. Very few in Eastern Bengal do either.
25. I am not aware of any increase, but the
statistics of the Eastern districts would prove
this. They are not available to me.
27. The boatmen have very long hours. They
work in the sun and rain from 6 A.M. to 8 P.M.,
snatching one meal at 11 A.M. They believe that
ganja-smoking gives them the necessary en-
durance.
28. I do not know.
29. I do not think it is much mixed.
30. Mostly in company. Mainly confined to
males; never children.
31. Easily formed. I do not think there is
much tendency for the moderate to extend into
the excessive use. Not so much so as in the case
of opium.
32. I cannot give any trustworthy evidence on
this point.
33. I think it is generally regarded as harmless
and its excessive use only as disreputable. I
cannot answer the other parts of the question.
34. It would be regarded as a hardship.
35. I think it is not feasible on account of the
growth of the wild plant. I believe the prohi-
bition would lead to extended recourse to alcohol
and opium. Alcohol is more harmful than ganja
in all respects, but opium much less so.
36. I do not know.
37. I only know the effects of ganja-smoking.
38. I am not aware of it.
39. I have had no opportunities of comparison.
40. Yes; preparations of ganja are much used
in the treatment of dysentery and asthmatic
affections.
41. (a) and (b) These are the purposes for
which it is habitually used.
(c) I am not aware that it has any preventive
or febrifuge properties.
42. In the vast majority of cases the habitual
use of ganja produces no appreciable bad effect
either bodily or intellectually. A ganja-smoker
is not distinguishable from a non-smoker.
43. No; only exceptionally.
44. It is refreshing; it does not produce in-
toxication. It enables him to do a long day's
hard work on one meal. It is usually taken in
repeated whiffs throughout the day, I have not
seen any after-effects in these cases, and I have
spent days in company with native boatmen
habitually using ganja in moderation.
45 and 46. (a), (b), (c), (d) I am not aware of
any, but if any were produced the use would no
longer be moderate, but excessive.
(e), (f), (g) When smoked in company by young
men it may readily be a source of laziness, immo-
rality and debauchery, but not so when smoked as
by hardworking boatmen. Nearly 30 per cent. of
the inmates of lunatic asylums in Bengal are per-
sons who have been ganja-smokers, and in a very
large proportion of these I believe ganja to be the
actual and immediate cause of their insanity; but
though I am not prepared to say that moderate
use of ganja is never the cause of insanity, it
is most frequently the result of long excessive
use, and especially of occasional debauches with
the drug. It has much the same relationship to
insanity in India that alcohol has in Europe, and
may be the cause of fierce maniacal excitement of
short duration (as in delirium tremens) or of a
chronic cheerful mania which is the characteristic
insanity of Indian asylums. It has not the
same tendency to lead to dementia, the result of
tissue changes in the brain, as alcohol has. Like
alcohol it will especially lead to insanity in per-
sons of deficient self-control, who take to the drug
as a relief from mental trouble. Both forms of
ganja insanity, the acute and chronic, are distin-
guishable by the symptoms (see separate memo).*
47 and 48. I have no means of forming an
opinion on this question.
Appended.
2 0 2