CH. XII.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 235
Crombie the registers and asked him to point out any such alterations. He then
withdrew his statement, and accepted as accurate the statement of Rames
Chandra Sib, Overseer of the Dacca Asylum, who has made the entries in the
registers and compiled Statement No. VII ever since 1880. His statement is:
"The cause is entered in the register from the descriptive
roll.....................
Cause is never entered in the register from enquiry made after the patient's
admission. I know of no case of this being done. The entry made at the top
of the page would never be altered. But if any enquiry which I might make
showed cause not hitherto known, this fact would be entered in the history of
the case. I remember such cases, and I might be able to point them out.
But that entry in the history of the case would not alter the cause as shown in
Statement VII of the annual report. That statement is filled up only from the
entries made in the descriptive roll as copied into our register." Dr. Crombie's
procedure then differed in no respect from the most mechanical and unintelli-
gent record of causation in any asylum in India, for it was left entirely as
clerical work to a subordinate. And the only statistics on which Dr. Crombie
bases his views regarding insanity rest on the descriptive rolls, of which he
strongly declares his distrust.
Secondly, in regard to Dr. Crombie's attention to the special matter of causa-
tion of insanity, it appears that "there was no discussion of cause in any
annual report written by him from Dacca, nor any formal discussion in writing."
Like other Superintendents, he seems not to have felt that his duty required special
attention to this subject.
Thirdly, the Commission discussed with Dr. Crombie the cases of 1887,
and the results of this discussion of them are recorded in his oral examina-
tion. They afford clear proof of the fact that even a careful examination of the
papers received with the lunatics on their admission would have prevented
five out of the fourteen cases being recorded as hemp drug cases (viz., the first,
fourth, tenth, thirteenth, and probably also the twelfth), and would have led to
two more being recorded as mixed or doubtful cases (viz., the second and four-
teenth). The history in the asylum should have prevented the fifth case being
retained as a ganja case; for the true cause (peripheral irritation) was clearly
established, and insanity was cured on removal of that cause. It should also
have led to the rejection of the eighth case, or at least to its being recorded as a
mixed case. Thus nine out of the fourteen hemp drug cases of 1887 at Dacca
are found to have been erroneously entered as such. There remain only five
true hemp drug cases. Dr. Crombie says: "Taking my whole asylum expe-
rience, I think that this may probably be accepted as fairly representative of
the real state of the case." The total admissions in 1887 to the Dacca Asylum
were 55. Of these Dr. Crombie now accepts only 5 (or 9 per cent.) as due to
hemp drugs. And he states that this may be accepted as fairly representative of
the real state of the case, so far as his experience enables him to judge.
Fourthly, as to Dr. Crombie's conclusions. As there were fifty-five admis-
sions into the asylum in 1887, the number of cases (five) which may reasonably
be attributed to ganja turns out to be only nine per cent. As Dr. Crombie says
that the "chronic cheerful mania" which he describes is only found in a por-
tion (or, as his separate memorandum shows, in a minority) of the admissions,
and as he admits that it "may be due in part to difference of character" and
not to the drug, there does not seem to be much, if any, ground for associating
this chairomania with hemp. And in view of the small proportion of true hemp