226 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
Difficulty of getting accurate
information.
which is seen to produce such symptoms should be readily accepted by the popu-
lar mind as a cause of insanity.
This popular idea has been greatly strengthened by the attitude taken up by
Asylum Superintendents. They have known nothing of the effects of the drugs at
all, though the consumption is so extensive, except that cases of insanity have been
brought to them attributed with apparent authority to hemp drugs. They have
generalised from this limited and one-sided experience. They have concluded that
hemp drugs produce insanity in every case, or in the great majority of the cases, of
consumption. They have had no idea that in the vast majority of cases this result
does not follow the use. They have accordingly without sufficient inquiry assisted
by the statistics they have supplied and by the opinions they have expressed
in stereotyping the popular opinion and giving it authority and permanence.
All this mass of popular and medical opinion demanded careful examination.
The Commission have set themselves to take evidence from lay witnesses and
to sift as far as possible the cases mentioned so as to ascertain the basis of
the popular view. They have also examined medical men of all classes as to
cases of the alleged connection between hemp drugs and insanity which have
come before them in their practice, and have cross-examined them carefully in
regard to these cases so as to see whether the grounds for the opinion formed in
each case are adequate. Finally, they have very carefully considered the
asylum statistics, and specially enquired into a large number of asylum cases.
It has become apparent in the course of the inquiry that no satisfactory conclu-
sion can be based on the individual cases reported by witnesses. As a rule, it
is made manifest at once by cross-examination that the history of the patient
has not formed the subject of careful inquiry; that the opinion is based on most
inadequate data; and that little or no importance has been attached to the
question of causation. The Commission have therefore been compelled to fall
back on the asylums. This course seems clearly expedient on two grounds—
firstly, that the asylum statistics and asylum experience have formed the
principal basis of the opinion which calls for examination; and, secondly, that the
asylum cases must form the best material for arriving at a conclusion. In its
general effects the evidence of witnesses should not be ignored; but it is impossi-
ble to say precisely what weight ought to be attached to it in regard to particular
facts; and the main basis of any final conclusion must be the material supplied
by the asylums which the Commission now go on to consider.
514. The facilities which exist in England for acquiring something like accu-
rate knowledge of the cause of insanity in any par-
ticular case may be confidently regarded as much
greater than those in India. Yet every work on insanity contains comments
on the difficulty of arriving at the truth and the unsatisfactory nature of
many of the statements recorded. The most important subject of inquiry in this
connection is the history of the lunatic's family, so as to discover what (if any)
hereditary predisposition to insanity there may exist. Regarding this, Dr.
Blandford says ("Insanity and its Treatment"): "Statistics on this subject
are valueless. One author attributes 10 per cent. of cases to this cause; another
no less than 90. This arises from lack of information on the part of some
friends and the wilful concealment of others, and also because some statisticians
seek for insanity only, taking no account of other neuroses, such as epilepsy