347
taken root on account of its connection with reli-
gious ideas. The religious mendicants both in
Hindus and Muhammadans who pass idle lives and
persons living on charities are generally addicted to
this vice.
28. Ganja smoking.
Bhang eating.
(a) ½ a tola per day
(a) ¼ tola per day.
( b ) 4/5 tola per day.
The cost is about a pice for an habitual moderate
consumer and about an anna to one and half an
anna for an habitual excessive consumer.
29. Ordinarily mixed are betel leaves, cardamoms,
and tobacco in smoking. Dhatura is mixed by the
inveterate for making the stuff more narcotic when
the smoking of ganja becomes ineffective by habit.
In eating or drinking bhang the ingredients that
are used in its preparations are dried rose buds,
poppy seeds, cucumber seeds, aniseed, sugar and
black pepper.
These ingredients for smoking or drinking are
added in order to give good flavour and taste.
Bhang massala consists of the above-mentioned
things.
30. Ganja smoking is practised in company by
the low when practicable and. available. By the
respectable it is usually practised in solitude.
Bhang is generally drunk in company by the re-
spectable. Ganja is smoked by a few low females.
Bhang is used by some low females; respectable
females do not use either. Bhang is occasionally
drunk by children.
31. More easily than other narcotics, and the
habit is not more difficult to be broken off than
other narcotics. There is no tendency.
32. The eating or drinking of bhang is obtained
in the respectable inhabitants of parts of India
mentioned in 24 as an occasional indulgence on
fasting occasions and on holidays. It is temperate,
and does not lead to the habit, and is not injurious
to the constitution so far as its temporary effects
are concerned. In the same way ganja smoking is
resorted to by the low, but to a much less extent
than bhang drinking is in the respectable.
33. Ganja smoking is looked down upon.
Bhang eating or drinking, though considered a bad
habit, is tolerated and is not objected to. Socially
the objection is raised on account of their narcotic
properties; religiously there is no objection.
Ganja smoking is in disrepute on account of the
smell of the smoke. Otherwise why ganja smok-
ing should be more looked down upon than bhang
eating or drinking I do not understand, as the
effects of both on the brain are nearly identical.
34. Yes, to the habitual consumer. In the same
way as the privations of other narcotics would be to
their respective consumers.
35. It will cause much discontent in the con-
sumers. Those that use this drug only which is
allowed to them by their religion will not take of
any other drug.
36. I do not suppose alcohol is being substituted
for this drug.
37. Only in degree than kind, charas being
stronger than ganja.
38. Chur is less potent than ganja.
39, I think smoking of ganja is more injurious
to the constitution and mental faculties than eat-
ing or drinking of bhang. The reasons are the
effects observed of both forms, also the resins exud-
vol. vii.
ing from narcotic trees are generally stronger than
other parts of them.
40. Its preparations are used in hysteria, mania,
insomnia, and uterine affections by the school of
native doctors.
Bhang is used in cattle diseases.
1. (a) , (b) and (c) Yes.
Nearly 50 per cent, of the habitual moderate
smokers of ganja use it for purposes mentioned in
(a) and ( b) , nearly 10 per cent. for purposes men-
tioned in (c) , and nearly 10 per cent, of the occa-
sional moderate smokers use it as a febrifuge. I
have been informed of cases in which attacks of in-
termittent fevers (ague) have disappeared by a single
process of smoking ganja—cases I mean of jungle
fevers, in which the administration of even large
doses of quinine have failed to ward off the attacks
or in districts in which quinine is not obtainable.
42. I think it is beneficial in cases mentioned in
41.
It is beneficial in cases 41 (a) and ( b) , in that
poor people get an extremely inexpensive article
as a digestive and as a stimulant, and also in 41 ( c)
in cases of malarious fevers.
43. Yes, more inoffensive than spirit drinkers.
44. It is stimulant, or sedative, or refreshing,
according as the habitual consumer resumes work
or returns from it. It produces no intoxication in
the habitual moderate user. It does create appe-
tite. The effect lasts for nearly a couple of hours.
It produces longing and uneasiness at the pre-
scribed period in the habitual moderate consumer.
45. (
a) Yes; its habitual use produces deterio-
ration of physical frame, perversion of mental facul-
ties, and induces low moral principles.
(b) The constitution is weakened and debili-
tated.
(c) No. On the contrary, the appetite is en-
couraged and digestion rendered easy.
(d) The smoking produces cough and asthma in
some cases.
(e) In the habitual excessive users and exception-
ally in the habitual moderate users.
(f) In some cases of habitual moderate users the
form of insanity known as dementia manifests itself,
and generally it is of a chronic kind and it is also
primary. As far as I have seen, there are no
typical symptoms. These resemble symptoms in
dementia induced through any other causes.
(g) I do not know of cases of insanity produced
by using the drug for allaying mental anxiety or
pain in brain diseases. I cannot say so. I have
seen and known of such cases, but they were not
under my treatment, and so I am unable to give a
detailed history.
47. It is not. It does not affect the children in
any way.
49. By the occasional moderate users; it is used
by the low prostitutes. It produces weakness of
virile powers in habitual moderate consumers.
51. No; only a small proportion.
53. Yes, in solitary instances. I know of one
case in Mhow where a person killed and wounded
several persons by running amuck by indulgence in
excess by this drug.
54. Generally where revenge is the object.
55. Yes. Complete stupefaction is induced in
persons who are not habituated to it after the pre-
liminary stage of excitement.
3 A 2