CH. XIII.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 261
blow with a split bamboo; and that the other then turned on him with his knife. The
principal circumstances of the case and the real provocation are lost sight of by
the witness. This case cannot be regarded as due to hemp drugs. This witness,
second case (No. 60), is defective in a somewhat similar manner, inasmuch as he
fails to point out that the man sought to murder his wife because she had given
evidence against him. This is unfortunately too often found to be an adequate
explanation of such a crime as this. Though the man was a ganja smoker,
there is no proof that he was under the influence of the drug at the time. There
is no mention of ganja in the record.
The next witness is Dr. Crombie, who is a member of the Committee for
advising Government about criminal lunatics. He stated that he was unable, how-
ever, to give specific cases, but had one case clearly in his mind. This case he
had also quoted before the Opium Commission as a case of running amok from
ganja. He stated the case thus: "A Bengali babu, as the result of a single
debauch, in an attack of ganja mania slew seven of his nearest relatives in bed
during the night." A perusal of the records indicates that this statement of the
case is wholly inaccurate. There is indeed mention of the man having used both
ganja and opium. But there is no mention of a debauch, and there is mention of
habit. So that the conception of "a single debauch" is quite opposed to the
history contained in the records. The judicial record shows that the man had
been for years peculiar in his behaviour; that about six years before he had be-
come quite mad for a time on his wife's death; that on the present occasion
a similar outbreak of madness had occurred on his mother's death; that he "did
not take ganja during this time;" that the murders were committed on the night
of his mother's Shradh, about which there had been "a commotion" during
the day; and that the motive seemed to be mere insane despair as to how these
members of the family could be cared for in the future. The asylum papers
indeed mention "his mother's death as well as addiction to ganja and opium"
as the cause of insanity. But the papers afford no clue as to the origin of Dr.
Crombie's view of the case.
The next five cases are three mentioned by Mr. Marindin (Collector, Bengal)
and two by Mr. Dalrymple Clark (District Superintendent of Police, Assam).
These witnesses did not profess a detailed knowledge of these cases, but merely
suggested that the records should be consulted as the cases seemed to be such
as the Commission desired to see. But the records show that no satisfactory
connection between hemp drugs and crime was established in any of these cases.
Dr. Mullane, a Civil Surgeon in Assam, mentions two cases in which he
thinks the crime was associated with ganja. The first (No. 67) is a case in which
a religious mendicant murdered a guest in the middle of the night. Under these
circumstances it is impossible to say with anything like confidence what really
occurred. But the evidence does point to the crime having been committed
under the influence of ganja. In his second case (No. 68), however, Dr.
Mullane is incorrect in his facts. The man did wound some people; he appa-
rently did not kill any one. He never took ganja, though he took liquor and
opium. The Judge found that he was not under the influence of any intoxicant
at the time of the offence.
Mr. Moran, an Assam Tea Planter, gives the next case (No. 69). It is
instructive to note that though the case occurred on his own estate, and he was
66