CH. X.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 173
dhatura smoke. The Commission requested Dr. D. D. Cunningham to conduct
such experiments. His report is contained in Vol. III Appendices. The fol-
lowing extract is of interest: "The subject of experiment, as in the case of that
on the effects of the inhalation of the smoke of ganja, was a fair-sized specimen
of Macacus rhesus. The treatment was initiated on the 1st June and continued
until 11th July, so that the experiment lasted for a period of about six weeks.
In its conduct the same inhalation apparatus was employed as in the first
experiment. At the outset the seeds of dhatura were made use of as the source
of smoke; but as they appeared to be undesirably potent, leaves were pre-
sently substituted for them, and were persistently employed throughout the rest
of the experiment.
"The symptoms attending the treatment were not invariably quite uniform in
character. On some occasions indications of a certain amount of cerebral
excitement were present for some time; but, as a rule, drowsiness and gradually
increasing intoxication manifested themselves from the outset, either alone or
associated with symptoms of irritation of the respiratory apparatus as indicated
by coughing.
"The animal was killed by means of prolonged administration of chloroform
on the morning of the 14th July, and a post-mortem examination conducted at
once with the following results:—
"The lungs wore not adherent to thoracic walls, but were both deeply con-
gested almost everywhere, and especially towards their apices, in which numerous
tubercular nodules and small cavities were present. Such phenomena were, of
course, very frequent in the lungs of monkeys in confinement, but it remains pos-
sible that the general pulmonary congestion may have been partially due to irri-
gation incident on the inhalation of the smoke. The visceral pericardium was
almost devoid of fat, and was somewhat thickened and opaque, especially over the
region of the right auricle. The omentum and mesentery were also very free
from fat. The spleen appeared to be rather anaemic, and was somewhat fibroid
in texture. The liver, pancreas, stomach, large and small intestines, and kidneys
presented no abnormal appearances.
"On opening the cranium the dura-mater was found to be somewhat thickened,
and especially in the neighbourhood of the superior longitudinal sinus very
conspicuously congested. In this region, too, the membrane in the occipital
region was fixed to the cranial walls by soft, very vascular adhesions. The pia-
mater was thickened and so highly injected throughout that the cerebral sur-
face had a generally diffused pink tint. The cerebral substance was everywhere
abnormally soft and so friable as to render any immediate removal of the mem-
branes impossible without the occurrence of much destruction of the nervous
tissue. Like the surface, although in minor degree, it was of a pinkish tinge
owing to abnormal accumulation of blood. Conditions of this kind appeared to
be universally diffused throughout the whole of the cerebral centres, the texture
of the hemispheres, of the cerebellum, and of the basal ganglia being alike soft, and
the evidences of abnormal congestion universally distributed. In spite of this,
however, the spinal cord and its membranes were to all appearance perfectly
healthy.
"In so far as a single experiment goes, the results in this case would then
seem to show that the habitual inhalation of the smoke of dhatura, even when
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