362
(f) Yes. It is only after a long use. I saw only
one case. It is of a permanent type. Temporary
type is not rare. A man often forgets of
his action under ganja when in sane moments.
46. I have seen some 20 persons who became
insane under excessive ganja smoking. Some of
them are raving mad. The madness is permanent.
They get temporary excitements.
Somewhere
these excitements were due to the temporary
abstinence of the drug and somewhere to their
excessive use. In the neighbourhood of my resi
dence a woman of middle class died from dysen
tery and was a hard ganja smoker. Her one son,
a hard ganja smoker, became stark mad, and
another son, a very good intelligent man, a few
years since has become insane. They keep up
intelligence and reasoning power except during
excitement, but are incapable to conduct business
and to manage their own affairs and cannot be in
any way trusted.
47. No.
48. I do not know of any hereditary longing
for the drug. In one case the parents were ganja
smokers and the boys were also hard smokers and
became mad, and I could find no proof that they
were hereditary.
49. (a) Yes.
(b) Yes.
(c) They suffer from the ill effects of indulg
ing to an excess.
(d) I know none.
56. As to administration to others, dhatura is
often given to produce sleep for the purpose of
theft. Bhang and ganja mixed with dhatura is
often administered in the country to produce mad
ness.
Oral evidence.
Question 1. —I took the degree of L. M. S. at
the Calcutta University in 1880, and was educated
in the Calcutta Medical College. I was never in
Government service. I have practised in Tangail
since 1880, and I am there still.
Question 45.—I have in one case seen that the
moderate use produced insanity of a permanent
type. The insane I refer to is still living. His
father and mother were both ganja smokers and
sane, though they were irritable, excitable, and hot-
tempered. As far as I could tell, they were quite
sane and their excitability was not like insanity.
They are a family of zamindar's amlas. It was
six years ago that the man was found to be insane,
but for three years before that, he had been eccen-
tric. He is now 58 or 59 years old. I cannot say
when he began to smoke ganja, but I know he is
a ganja smoker for I know the whole household
and the persons who used to bring him his ganja.
He was a very reliable man of business up to the
time he left the zamindar's service about ten years
ago. He now smokes in excess. When he began
to be insane we discovered that he was smoking to
excess. From enquiry, I learned that he smoked
moderately before that. I enquired when he
became insane what amount he was in the habit of
smoking, and his servants and otħer amlas of
the zamindar told me that he was smoking
moderately. I did not enquire what actual quan
tity he used to smoke. He smoked two or three
times a day. I never saw him smoke. Ganja is
taken privately. I never attended him profes-
sionally, nor do I know that he was ever attended
by any medical man. His father died sixteen to
eighteen years ago when I was a student in
Calcutta. His mother died two or three years
after his father before I left college. I remember
that she was of an excitable and irritable temper
and that all the people of the village used to fear
both father and mother. If there had been any
other cause for insanity, I should have learnt it for
he was my neighbour. I made enquiry in his house
about cause to ascertain whether the insanity was
from ganja or anything else. The people in the
house said it was ganja. I enquired for family
troubles, but discovered none. I recollect now
that he used to take liquor. I made no further
enquiries because his house adjoined mine, and I
knew all about him. His caste is Baidya. His
brother who is dead was stark mad. My belief is
that he went mad from ganja also.
Question 46.—The persons mentioned in this
answer were not all of them under my treatment.
Two of them only were so. None of these 20
persons went into a lunatic asylum. They belong
to different villages, only three, i.e., one besides
the two mentioned above, to mine. Of some I
only heard that they were insane from ganja smok
ing. I know the facts personally about five of
them, i.e., two besides those in my own village.
I have seen more than 60 or 70 insane persons in
my profession and ordinary life. Of the three in
my village, two are the brothers of whom I have
already spoken.
The other two insanes lived in villages at a
little distance. One of the latter, a boy living in
a village two miles off began smoking ganja at 8
years old. He has been mad nearly four years
and he is now 16 years old. He was a bad boy,
no doubt. He is still mad and still smokes. I
know his family intimately. I cannot say whether
there was any hereditary taint or not.
The other man of my village is now 50 years
old. He has been mad ever since I can remem
ber. In the village it was stated by all that he
had gone mad from ganja, and he still smokes.
I cannot say if there was any insanity in his family.
I am not very intimately acquainted with the
family. I do not know what his habits were
before he became insane.
The fifth case is now sane. He lives in a
different village. He was mad for six months.
I know his family well, and there was no here
ditary taint. He did not take liquor. His father
and brothers had occupation in my village, so I
know all about him. It was fourteen years or so
ago that he became mad for six months.
I am in charge of a private dispensary at Tangail.
One of the two cases which were under my treat
ment was that of the lad of 16. He was an out
door patient. He had syphilitic ulcers in the arms.
That indicates unnatural offences. The other man
who was under my treatment was the man of 50,
who has been mad ever since I can remember. I
treated him for asthma. In neither of these cases
did I treat the patients for insanity. In fact, I
have never treated any case of insanity due to
ganja.