252 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
(c) Cases in which the drug has been used for a considerable period, and
then given rise to mania of shorter or longer duration, or cases in
which the symptoms of hemp drug delirium do not completely
subside, but pass on into a state of mania usually curable, and
thus indicating the probable absence of anatomical lesions—
hemp drug mania.
The evidence, though by no means clear and decisive, is perhaps sufficient
to justify the presumption of an analogy such as is above indicated; and cases
which have come before the Commission have seemed to divide themselves into
these three classes. At the same time it must be pointed out that the sharp line
of demarcation in symptoms which separates alcoholic intoxication from delirium
tremens does not separate the intoxication and delirium produced by hemp drugs.
Further, in regard to what has been said about hemp drug mania, it may be noted
that it is not improbable, though it has not been established by evidence, that
prolonged abuse of the drugs may give rise in some cases to definite brain lesions
resulting in a progressive weakening of all the faculties leading to dementia.
Legrain's description of poisons
of the mind.
538. Hemp drugs have been classed among the "poisons of the mind," and it
may be of interest, as throwing a good deal of light on
the whole subject and explaining the different modes
in which "intoxications" may give rise to altered mental states, to allude briefly
to the manner in which mental poisons are presumed to act. M. Legrain, in Hack
Tuke's Dictionary of Psychological Medicine, defines mental poisons as including
all substances, whatever may be their origin and nature, which are capable of
exercising a marked action on the intellectual processes, either by disordering
them or by suspending them completely for a moment or longer. He then goes on
to describe their action at length in a passage which may be summarized as follows.
Poisons of the mind act primarily to a greater or less extent on the cerebral cells.
Almost all substances introduced into the organism modify the cerebral processes,
this being due to the delicacy of the organization of the nervous system, which,
like all complicated mechanism, is extremely vulnerable. The brain as the termi-
nus of all sensations, and as the regulator of even the most minute cellular
functions, has to bear the brunt of attacks, even the slightest, directed against
the vital equilibrium, and has also to re-act in order to re-establish this equili-
brium. In every intoxication, in addition to the cerebral re-action due to the effect
of the poison itself, there are other re-actions requiring as many reflexes for the
defence of the body, and closely connected with the impressions which
the sensorium receives, of modifications of nutrition, or of changes which
take place in other organs under the influence of the poison. These re-
actions are the symptoms common to every intoxication.
The cerebral
re-actions which take place under the more direct influence of the toxic sub-
stance are of two kinds—they may be diffused, general, and undefined, and
expressed by vague symptoms, indicating a lesion of the brain as a whole; or they
are well-defined, clear, and localized, indicating that the poison affects one special
centre of the brain to the exclusion of all others. Special derangements may also
occur in addition to those of the brain. In spite of the great dissimilarity of
the substances which are capable of producing cerebral intoxication, there are
nevertheless certain clinical features common to all. We might even say that
there are no intellectual disorders more pathognomonic of one poison than of
another. The artificial insanity produced by toxic substances is nothing but the