CH. XI.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 209
effects of either the moderate or excessive use of the drugs. Dr. Partridge
(witness No. 22) is an officer of 26 years' service, and stated that he has never
seen the evil effects of the drug except in cases under observation for insanity;
"the effects apart from that have never attracted my attention."
Three assistant surgeons were examined. Witness No. 25 states: "Moderate
use has not, I believe, much to do with bronchitis, dysentery, or asthma." Witness
No. 26 considers that "ganja smoking causes asthma and bronchitis," but he
does not appear to discriminate between the moderate and excessive use. Wit-
ness No. 30 states that the drug "does not cause dysentery, bronchitis, or
asthma; rather moderate ganja smoking allays hard breathing in asthma."
Two hospital assistants were examined. Witness No. 27, after stating in his
paper that in long standing cases the use of the drug is certain to cause bron-
chitis, asthma, and dysentery, admitted in his cross-examination: "It is no use my
making any statement, because I have no experience of the effects of ganja,
and in fact know nothing about it." Witness No. 28 considers that the drug
causes bronchitis, asthma, and dysentery; but he fails to answer the question re-
garding results of excessive use, and it is fair to assume that he has not discrimina-
ted between the moderate and excessive use.
Only one native practitioner was examined (witness No. 31), who considered
that bronchitis, asthma, and dysentery were caused by the moderate use; but from
his written statement it is obvious that he failed to discriminate between the
moderate and excessive use.
North-Western Provinces.
502. In the North-Western Provinces nineteen commissioned and two uncov-
enanted medical officers were examined. Surgeon-
Major Tuohy (witness No. 87), of thirteen years'
service, stated: "I am unable to answer these questions from personal observation.
The consumers of the drugs have assured me that they cause no illeffect s of any
kind when taken in moderation. One man only said that bronchitis and asthma
were caused." Witnesses No. 75 and 89 stated that no ill effects are induced by
the moderate use. Dr. Harding (witness No. 92) in his paper ascribed bronchitis
and asthma to the moderate use, but on cross-examination admitted that "the
moderate use of these drugs does not in my opinion cause any injury or lead
to any baneful results." Surgeon-Captain Roberts (witness No. 91) premises his
written statement by remarking that "until this enquiry I knew absolutely
nothing about the hemp plant, its use or abuse, save a few grains of information
acquired by any student of materia medica in a medical school." Dr. Roberts
has had 51/2 years' service in India; for one year he toured through towns and
villages of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, and for nearly two years he
has acted as a Civil Surgeon, and for the remainder of his service he was in
charge of native regiments. Dr. Roberts remarked: "So far as the foregoing
opportunities served to impress my powers of observation, absolutely no question
of the use, and still less of the abuse, of hemp drugs by the people of India has
arisen in my mind prior to this inquiry
Those who most strongly
aver the ill effects of hemp deal (when questioned for definite facts) in general-
ities, suggesting a dyscrasia, loss of functional power, impotence, chronic
rheumatism, pallor, and atrophy, and all these results are precisely what I am led
to expect from malarial and splenic cachexia." Surgeon-Major F. C. Chatterji
(witness No. 85) has had a lifelong experience of India from Peshawar to Burma.
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