285
41. (a) Bhang increases the appetite.
(b) Bhang and ganja are both taken for
this purpose.
(c) As above. Bhang is sometimes given
in malarious fever.
Soldiers, constables, kahars, field labourers, boat-
men and others who work hard whilst exposed to
vicissitudes of weather take bhang, or if ganja
smokers, ganja. This refers both to moderate
occasional smokers and habitual users of the drug.
Bhang is the recognised native remedy for fatigue
in men and animals.
42. Bhang taken habitually in moderation is
harmless; but it is said that ganja taken habit-
ually, even in small quantities, is apt to cause
dyspepsia and weakness. Habitual smokers become
emaciated and bad tempered. I can give no
reasons.
43. Yes.
44. The immediate effect is stated to be refresh-
ing, exhilarating, and to increase the appetite.
The effects last from two to four hours.
There appear to be but slight after-effects, and,
unless among habitual consumers, no longing is
produced. It is stated that the effects of bhang
are more lasting than those of ganja.
I experimented on myself and found that, in the
case of a person not used to ganja, the smoking in
cigarettes of 3 grains, the smoke being inhaled
into the lungs, produced slight singing in the
ears. The smoke of 5 and 6 grains inhaled into
the lungs caused singing in the ears, feeling of heat
and oppression in cardiac region, rapid pulse, and
at intervals a feeling of apprehension of disaster.
Visions of all kinds float before the eyes, changing
rapidly, of bright or sparkling appearance. The
hand was steady, and by an effort the visions, etc.,
could be dismissed from the mind. The inhalation
of the smoke of 10 grains produced the same
symptoms in more marked form, with decided
hallucinations of hearing voices, bells, railway
whistles, etc., some unsteadiness of hand and gait,
forcible vomiting without any feeling of nausea;
but even here the visions and sounds were under
mental control, and could by an effort be dis-
missed. There was great palpitation of heart.
There were no after-effects.
The intoxication is more curious than pleasant,
and the dreams seem to lead up to a feeling of
impending death or disaster, which is caused by
the oppression in the cardiac region and the pal-
pitations. This passed off and the visions com-
menced again, leading up to another attack of
palpitation and apprehension. This sensation is
decidedly very disagreeable, not such as to en-
courage a repetition of the experiment.
45. This answer only refers to bhang and ganja.
The habitual moderate use of bhang appears to
produce no ill effects, and in many cases that of
ganja is equally harmless; but ganja-smoking,
even when moderate, sometimes affects digestion
and causes emaciation and bad temper. It causes
a craving for food at first; but this effect is lost
afterwards. I know of no case where it has
caused dysentery, bronchitis, or asthma; but I
have noticed hoarseness of the voice, probably due
to some laryngeal irritation, among ganja smokers.
I do not know of any case in which a previously
energetic and moral person has become lazy and
immoral through the use of hemp drugs. For
insanity see further on.
46. The indulgence in hemp drugs does not
seem to do much harm as long as the consumer is
well fed, even when large quantities are taken.
The question of the connection of hemp drugs
and insanity is a very wide one, and in the
absence of any one case in my own practice in
which I can say that a sane person consuming
these drugs, and with no hereditary taint of
insanity has become insane after excessive indul-
gence, and from no other cause, I can only state
my opinions with diffidence.
It appears certain that alcohol, opium, chloral,
and perhaps some other stimulants and narcotics
cause insanity, and there is no reason why Indian
hemp should not do so too. At the same time it
must be admitted that in some cases the three
former may be taken in excessive quantities for
prolonged periods without ever causing insanity,
unless the craving for and indulgence in these
substances is itself looked on as insanity, and I
believe that this is true of hemp drugs also.
We know that by administering certain quan-
tities of alcohol, etc., certain effects may be surely
produced, even among those addicted to their use;
but it is not known that insanity is one of them.
It only occurs in a certain proportion of cases,
which are probably those in which predisposition
exists, which might have developed insanity from
other causes, and this is probably the case with
hemp drugs. The fact that although hemp drugs
are commonly consumed in India and are almost
unknown in England, that the proportion of cases
of insanity in India which it is necessary to place
under restraint in the Government native lunatic
asylums, which are the only asylums, as far as I
know, in India, is infinitesimal as compared with
the number of lunatics in public asylums in
England and Ireland. In the whole of the Ben-
gal Presidency, with a population of about seventy-
one millions, there were only 951 native lunatics of
all kinds so confined at the end of 1892.
It is true that many lunatics are at large in
India who would be placed in asylums in Eng-
land, but the last census shows that the propor-
tion of lunatics in Bengal is very much less than
what it is at home; and of the 1,149 cases
treated in asylums during 1892, only 227 cases
are said to be caused by hemp drugs. This gives
less than four cases per million of the population
even if all the cases are admitted to be due to the
assigned cause. In the Patna Asylum there were
said to be 51 cases due to ganja and bhang out of
a total of 289 insanes treated during the year.
The proportion is large, but the actual number of
cases small.
The investigations of the Commission were
limited to those cases of insanity said to be
caused by hemp drugs and admitted during the
year 1892. Of these, there were 8 cases out of a
total of 38 cases admitted from all causes.
It is perhaps unfortunate that this was the
case, as I took over charge of the asylum in
February 1893, and four of the cases had either
died or been discharged before that time; a fifth
was only twelve days in the asylum after I took
charge; while a sixth case, which had recovered
and been sent up for trial, had never been insane
during my tenure of office. In these cases my
opinion is based on the Superintendent's notes,
the descriptive rolls and medical certificates, and
not on personal observation.
The other cases were seen by me.
As regards the question, "Does it produce in-
sanity (Nos. 45 and 46)?" I should say "yes