178 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. X.
bronchial mucous membrane, leading to increased secretion, and resulting in the
condition which is described as chronic bronchitis in ganja smokers. Whether true
asthma can be induced by hemp drug smoking, the Commission consider open to
much doubt. It appears to them highly probable that the drugs are smoked in the
first instance for the relief of that disease. On the other hand, it is well known that
frequent asthmatic seizures result in emphysema of the lungs and attendant bronchi-
tis; and possibly most cases of hemp drug bronchitis are associated with emphyse-
ma, induced partly by the strain mechanically thrown on the lungs in smoking, and
partly as a result of the chronic bronchitis. So that in considering the œtiology
of associated asthma and bronchitis in ganja smokers, they are inclined to the
view that in the vast majority of cases the drug is not the cause. In many of the
statements of witnesses regarding alleged experience there is no satisfactory evid-
ence of even the co-existence of these diseases with the habit of using hemp
drugs. And when that co-existence is reasonably established, there is often no
good ground for accepting the relation of cause and effect. The drugs may have
been used in many cases owing to the popular notion that they alleviate these
diseases. At the same time there is some evidence that the drugs may cause
bronchitis or bronchial catarrh as above described. There is no satisfactory evid-
ence that they ever cause asthma.
Diuretic action.
464. The diuretic action of bhang is mentioned in connection with the
treatment of gonorrhœa. The diuresis which is popu-
-arly supposed to be induced by administration of
an infusion of bhang is in accord with Dr. Russell's experiments (Bengal witness
No. 105) which are appended to his paper. In these experiments Dr.
Russell found that the leaves both from mature and immature plants, whether
fresh or dry, and used as a drink or smoked with tobacco, produced diuresis; but
Dr. Russell does not appear to have noticed diuresis following the smoking of
ganja. These experiments were made in 1883. Subsequently some supple-
mentary experiments were conducted by Dr. Russell, which are embodied in Dr.
Prain's Report on the "Cultivation and use of ganja." In the précis of
his experiments, Dr. Russell states: " The only marked effect was diuresis from
drinking infusions of fresh (not dried) leaves and stems." In his oral examination
before the Commission, Dr. Russell repeated that the dried leaves had no
marked diuretic effect. The diuresis was the most marked effect of the fresh
leaves. The difference in the action of the fresh and dry leaves is no doubt due,
as suggested by Dr. Russell, to the escape of a volatile principle, this volatile
principle being, no doubt, a volatile oil. Many volatile oils are well known to
possess diuretic properties. It is to the presence of the volatile oil of juniper
that that well-known domestic diuretic gin owes its properties. The higher the
temperature at which the leaves are dried, the smaller would be the amount of
retained essential oil; but the practical point is the desirableness of using only
fresh leaves when the diuretic effect of the drug is required. The flowering tops
are known to contain a volatile oil, and the diuresis which follows the exhibition
of the extract which is prepared from ganja has been specially noted by Prof.
C. H. Wood. The volatile oil present in the flowers is probably a mixture of
low and high boiling point oils; in preparing the extract the low boiling point oil
escapes, the peculiar odour of the finished extract being due to the retention
more or less of the high boiling point fraction. Some witnesses refer to the febri-
fuge properties of hemp drugs; and it is stated that bhang used as a drink cuts