226 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
Experiment No. 154, Gwalior charas.
Male cat, weight 4 lb 21/2 oz.; Dose 5.81 grains at 1-40 P.M. 2-15 P.M., rocking of
body and staggering, unsteady gait. 3 P.M., very definite symptoms displayed. 4 P.M., still
under the influence of the drug.
Experiment No. 155, Kumaon charas (cultivated).
Male cat, weight 4 lb 71/2 oz. Dose 6.25 grains at 2-15 P.M. 3 P.M., no apparent
effect. 4 P.M., animal is excited and constantly on the move; no tendency to sleep; on running
or walking it frequently falls on its side especially on turning round.
Experiment No. 156, Nepal charas, A.
Female cat, weight 3 lb 6 oz. Dose 4.72 grains at 2-20 P.M. Effect nil.
Experiment No. 157, Nepal charas, B.
Female cat, weight 4 lb 61/2 oz. Dose 6.16 grains at 2-40 P.M. Effect nil.
Experiment No. 158, Nepal charas, Shahjahani.
Male cat, weight 5 lb 21/2 oz. Dose 7.21 grains at 12 noon. Effect nil.
(n) Three experiments with a dose equivalent to 1/2,500 part of the body weight.
Experiment No. 159, Nepal charas, A.
Female cat, weight 3 lb 2 oz. Dose 8.75 grains at 12-45 P.M. Effect nil.
Experiment No. 160, Nepal charas, B.
Male cat, weight 3 lb 31/4 oz. Dose 8.96 grains at 1-35 P.M. Effect nil.
Experiment No. 161, Nepal charas, Shahjahani.
Male cat, weight 4 lb 41/4 oz. Dose 10.76 grains at 1-30 P.M. Effect nil.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The method of testing samples of hemp drugs by ascertaining their physiological value
may be regarded as much more satisfactory in the case of ganja and bhang than in the case
of charas. For it is submitted that ganja and bhang do not lend themselves so readily
to successful adulteration as charas. Consequently, while the results of the physiological tests
may be assumed to have a definite comparative value in the case of the various samples of
ganja and bhang, no such reliable result can be claimed from the experiments with the samples
of charas.
There are three samples of charas of which the physiological value has not been determined,
i.e., the three samples of Nepal charas. For when a dose of more than ten grains administer-
ed to a cat weighing less than 41/4 lb produced no effects, it did not appear worth while to
pursue the investigation further. Whether, however, these three samples are without physio-
logical value due to successful adulteration, or to the absence of active principle in the ganja
from which they were prepared, I am not in a position to say. To a varying degree the same
remark applies to all those samples of charas in which the physiological value of the extract
is much below that of the extract of the standard ganja. Alcohol is able to extract all the
active principles present in any sample of hemp drugs. It will be seen on reference to table
No. 1 that the quantity of the alcoholic extract varies greatly, and that it bears no relation to
the physiological activity of the sample. As already stated this may be due in the case of charas
to successful adulteration, but this is by no means to the same extent true in the case of ganja
and bhang.
In order, therefore, to obtain a true conception of the comparative value of any number of
samples of ganja and bhang, they should be grouped, not according to the quantity of the
alcoholic extract, nor yet according to the dose required to produce minimal effects, but accord-
ing to the quantity of their alcoholic extracts which may be regarded as physiologically active.
This has been roughly calculated and the results are given in table No. III. The samples of
bhang yield a smaller percentage quantity of alcoholic extract than the samples of ganja.
Their alcoholic extract is, in the majority of instances, much less active physiologically than the
extracts of the samples of ganja. A point of considerable importance appears to be the great
difference in physiological activity presented by the different samples of bhang. The doses of
the bhang extracts range from 1/5,000 to 1/100,000 part of the body weight, a very much wider
range than is presented by the ganja extracts.
The bhang obtained from cultivated plants is at least four times as active as that obtain-
ed from wild plants.
The Assam bhang from wild plants possesses equal activity with the sample of Bhagalpur
bhang obtained from the Board of Revenue and utilised as a standard.