401
46. By excessive use these drugs undoubtedly
may cause insanity. In moderate doses it enables
natives of India to undergo a great amount of
physical labour which otherwise they could not.
47. Not that I know of.
48. Not to my knowledge.
49. Some Northern Indian races take these
drugs as aphrodisiacs: and prostitutes use them.
Large and continuous doses would produce
impotence.
50. In excessive and long-continued doses these
drugs would act in the reverse way to paragraph 49.
57. No differences known as to effects by eating
or drinking these drugs.
43. Evidence of SURGEON-CAPTAIN R. E. S. DAVIS, Superintendent, Central
Prison, Rangoon.
1. Only from observation of prisoners and cri-
minal lunatics who have been addicted to the habit.
19. The ganja smokers I have come across
make little or no distinction between ganja and
charas, but my experience is very limited.
31. As far as my information goes, the habit
is easily formed and difficult to break off. There
appears not to be any great tendency to develop
the habit to excess.
I am not in a position to give any definite
opinion.
44. It would appear to be refreshing and sooth-
ing. It certainly does, in some instances, produce
some intoxication.
45. I have met two well-marked cases of insanity,
which were apparently caused by abuse of this
habit. In neither case was I able to obtain reliable
information, on which I could base an opinion as
to the mental state before the habit began. I
have no doubt whatever that persons of a neurotic
diathesis might find this habit the starting point
of mental disease.
O r a l e v i d e n c e .
Question 1.— I a m o f e l e v e n y e a r s ' s e r v i c e , a n d
since 1885 I have been in Burma. I passed the
first two years in military employment with civil
duties in addition. Since then I have been in civil
employ. I have been in charge of the Rangoon
Central Jail since 1889, and as the accommoda-
tion in the lunatic asylum is insufficient, I have
had an average of 60 criminal lunatics confined in
the jail.
Question 45. —The consumption of the hemp
drugs has not come before me as affecting the health
of the people. I have never discovered ganja in
the jail. I remember a small piece of some sub-
stance which I was told was ganja, being once
found on the person of a prisoner on admission to
the jail.
The only two cases in which I have seen any
reason to connect the hemp drugs with insanity
were criminal lunatics admitted to the jail, and
they were Sikhs. The cause was put down as
ganja smoking. I endeavoured to get evidence
on the subject and applied to their command-
ing officers, but failed to get reliable informa-
tion that there had been abuse of the drug. Ques-
tions put to the men who accompanied the prisoners
also failed to elicit any information beyond the
fact that they were ganja smokers. I was un-
able to conclude with confidence that the insanity
was due to ganja in these cases, because there was
no evidence of excess, and I could not learn the
previous history of the men. These are the two
cases mentioned in my answer to question 45.
44. Evidence of SURGEON-CAPTAIN R. H. CASTOR, Civil Surgeon, Yemethin.
1. Practically nil, as during my military service
I had no cases to deal with, and since I have entered
the Civil Department in Burma I have been in
the upper portion of the province, where cases of
this nature are comparatively rare. Of course
there are the well-known cases one hears of, of
sepoys running amuck from excessive use of these
drugs ; but personally I have not met with one.
2. I do not know enough of this subject to give
an opinion.
19. They are chiefly used for smoking ; but the
Hospital Assistant states that he has seen lozenges
made of ganja in Dacca and sold in the bazaar. I
have known very few persons who drink it at festi-
vals, and in their private houses both in Madras and
Burma.
23. Very often used for smoking in parts of the
Madras Presidency, Eastern Bengal, and North-
West. The middle class people generally, as a
rule, to a moderate extent, but sometimes to excess
at festivals.
2 8 . I d o n o t k n o w .
29. Milk, sugar and spices are sometimes mixed
with the drugs to make it more palatable. Opium is
mixed to make it a narcotic Betel stalk is mixed
with it to make it more intoxicating. I do not
know bhang massala.
vol. vii.
30 and 31. I do not know.
32. I do not know any particulars on this sub-
ject ; but I know it is used at the Muharram,
Holi, and other festivals.
39. I do not know.
40. Native doctors use it for diarrhœa and
cholera ; also for poisonous bites, and a narcotic.
For cattle-disease, I do not know.
41. (a ) As a digestive.
(b) Has a certain amount of staying-power.
(c) Yes.
(d) Narcotic, anodyne, and antispasmodic ; but
the action of the drug under these heads is limited
and uncertain.
42. I certainly think that to a moderate extent
these drugs are beneficial, owing to their actions
above named.
44. I do not know.
45. (b) Not, so far as I know.
(c) Causes loss of appetite.
(d) No.
(e) Sometimes to a certain extent only.
( f ) Do not know of a single case of insanity
this drug has produced.
3 H