CH. XII.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 227
or paralysis. If we make the attempt, we shall soon find how difficult it is to
get an accurate account of the health of the father or mother and grand-
father and grandmother of any one patient."
On the wider subject of causa-
tion generally, Dr. Hack Tuke (Dictionary of Psychological Medicine; article
"Statistics of Insanity") says: "As the Lunacy Commissioners adopt a classifica-
tion of the causes of insanity which is fairly workable, and have collected together
a large number of returns from English asylums, it is desirable to give the
results here for what they are worth. As is well known, the entries made by the
friends of patients in the statutory statement are extremely unreliable, and
constantly confound cause and effect. The Commissioners state that they have
not relied upon these, but upon statements verified by the medical officers of the
asylum."
Asylum statistics.
515. If this be the case in England, how much more is it necessary in India to
exercise caution in receiving statistics as to the causes
of insanity, to examine carefully the source from which
they come, and to rely only on those which have been carefully tested. The Com-
mission in examining the statistics of the lunatic asylums soon found that they could
not be regarded as trustworthy. They first of all enquired into a number of cases
in the Dullunda Asylum (Calcutta), and ascertained generally the practice in regard
to recording the cause in the asylum registers, and the character of the inquiry
on which that record was based. What they learned there led them to distrust
the asylum statistics. They determined to make a careful inquiry into all cases
attributed to hemp drugs in one year, and to endeavour thus to ascertain how
far the statistics were reasonably correct, and, if possible, also to arrive at some
conclusion as to whether hemp drugs have any real connection with insanity.
They fixed on the year 1892. They considered it for obvious reasons expedient
to take the same year all over India; and this was the last year for which
complete statistics existed when they began their inquiry. At the same time
these statistics had been completed and printed before the proposal to have
any inquiry into the effects of ganja had been made. The Commission decided
to take up each of these cases of 1892 separately, and to inquire as fully as
possible into its history.
Hitherto any opinion regarding the connection between hemp drugs and
insanity which has professed to have any solid basis at all, or to be more than
a vague impression, has been based on the figures contained in the annual
Statement No. VII appended to the Asylum Reports. It is necessary to con-
sider how far these figures supply any reasonable basis for a scientific opinion
on the question.
The figures contained in that statement are compiled from the entries as
to cause made in the asylum registers. The great majority of the Superintend-
ents of Asylums have clearly stated that these entries are based on the de-
scriptive rolls sent with the lunatics. They have not considered it necessary to
enquire how far the descriptive rolls are likely to give trustworthy information
regarding cause, how or by what agency that information is collected, or by
whom it is supplied. It has been sufficient that it is sent to them officially, and
that they have no opportunities of testing it. They have therefore accepted
it. If the papers have been manifestly incomplete, they have been sent back
to the Magistrate for completion. The practically universal rule has been to