553
45. I can't define moderation no more than I
can in the case of alcohol. The limit is reached
when any ill effects are apparent, when the limit is
crossed. The constitution is impaired and diges-
tion is injured. Dysentery, bronchitis and asthma
find an easier victim. The moral sense is de-
graded and habits of immorality formed. In ex-
treme cases insanity result. Of 102 lunatics now
under my charge, the insanity in two cases is said
to have been due to bhang. Sixteen cases are
believed to have been caused by ganja smoking,
while opium is held responsible for six. It is
noteworthy that two of the latter are females,
whereas no female apparently has become insane
from the use of bhang or ganja.
I think there is no evidence to show that the
hemp drugs are resorted to, to gain relief in dis-
ordered mental states, and I think that they are
generally fairly credited with being the initial
exciting cause of insanity. I have seen more than
one case of a single booze causing violent acute
mania of a month's duration. The insanity is often
permanent. If temporary, it may be re-induced.
No typical symptoms. Yes, insanes confess to
having used the hemp drugs when they have no
recorded history.
47 and 48. No.
49. Don't know. Can't answer these questions.
51. A very large proportion of the prisoners in
our jail at Tezpur have been addicted to the use
of these drugs in some shape. Of 239 male pri-
soners, 15 consumed ganja. Crime, it would appear,
goes with the use of these drugs: I can't ascertain
whether ganja consumers are addicted to any
special crime.
52. It is in occasional consumers I have noticed
the most serious consequences. The words moder-
ation and excess have no meaning for me in this
connection.
53. Yes. It leads to homicidal mania. A case
occurred in the Tezpur Lunatic Asylum, in which
one of the lunatics, who was believed to have be-
come insane from smoking ganja, killed the com-
pounder in a fit of excitement. He smoked 5
annas worth daily.
54. Not to my knowledge, but I have heard
that they are so used, and it is quite certain that
they are so used.
55. I do not know.
56. Tobacco is the drug most frequently mixed
with ganja to make the effect mild as well as to
economise. Dhatura is mixed with bhang to in-
crease the effects in cases where habit has rendered
the dose large, and the use of the drug has
been very excessive. I can give no further infor-
mation about the effects of modifying additions.
57. I can give no information not contained in
the answers to the preceding questions.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—My service began in 1879. I
have had civil duties from within about six months
of the beginning of my service. I have been in
what is now the province of Assam since 1880.
I have had charge of the Tezpur Asylum since
May 1893. I have had no special experience of
insanity—no experience except as Civil Surgeon.
I had no experience of insanity at home.
I
had cases under my observation in Sylhet, where
I was Civil Surgeon for about ten years. These
cases would be under observation for a month,
or two months, sometimes even three months,
owing to delay in getting sanction from Ben-
gal to their admission to the Dacca Asylum.
Some cases, of course, would prove not to be in-
sane, and would be allowed to go at once. I
cannot tell how large a proportion of cases would
be thus treated. Idiots would be similarly treated.
I would say he is not insane, he is a born idiot, not
a man to go to an asylum, but to be looked after
by his friends. The majority, however, were
asylum cases. My views regarding hemp drug
insanity are based on this experience. So also, of
course, no man can live in this country without
getting information through his ears. I see a
violent cooly on the road. His brother coolies say
he has been taking ganja. I naturally associate
ganja and violence. There is no doubt more in
my paper than I am prepared professionally to
establish.
There is no man in my profession who does not
get information from books. I have read of pre-
parations of ganja. Some preparations I only
know from books. But I know no literature
dealing with insanity due to hemp drugs. There
is none I can mention.
As to general effects, I have obtained my in-
formation from practice as Civil Surgeon, from
books, and from hearsay. I have obtained a great
deal from hearsay, especially in tea gardens, and
less from books than in any other way. I have
seen a good number of people affected with ganja,
putting insanity out of account. I have seen
them not in my practice, but going about the
district, especially in the neighbourhood of gardens.
These cases were not under observation for any
period—seen once perhaps and never again. You
do not see the man take ganja; but you get a
fairly good history that he has taken it. These
were cases of people who were very violent or
noisy and troublesome to their neighbours. There
is no case of disease among them. Apart from
insanity experience, I have no personal knowledge
of any disease being induced by hemp drugs in
any case.
Question 2.—I think the word "mohini" means
pleasant, seductive, or agreeable. It is a name
given by the Assamese to the growing hemp
plant.
Question 3.—I have never been stationed in
the Khasia Hills; but I had to visit a jail at
Cherrapunji, and have seen the stuff there. I
have myself seen it in the three districts I have
named in this answer.
I have no reason for supposing that the plant
does not grow in the Naga Hills; but I have
been told so. I doubt the statement. I have
been in the Naga Hills, and never saw the plant
there, and not told it did not grow there. I was
not specially looking out for it. The "Naga
Hills" is a big word.
I have never seen ganja growing in the forests.
It is always about houses and bastis. It does not
seem to be cultivated. But it was possibly once
cultivated, and now comes up, degenerated from
something once sown there. I go much among
the villages, for vaccination principally.
I
remember having seen the plant in Assamese
villages. I think you would find it probably in
any Assamese village. I find it all over the place
here, even by the roadside. It is too easily got
to suppose that it is cultivated. I have seen it in
Assamese villages far away from places where
there are foreigners. But it would be difficult to
get a place in Assam very far from tea gardens.
4 D