228
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
REPORT BY DR. GEORGE WATT, M.B., C.M., C.I.E., &c., REPORTER ON ECO-
NOMIC PRODUCTS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.
In reply to your letter No. 1969/181, dated 23rd April, and your unofficial reminder to
hand, I have the honour to say that I had not intended to contribute anything towards the
present enquiry into the subject of Indian hemp, because I have little to add that would
likely be of any great value further than what is contained in my previous publications
on that subject. Indeed, what I might be induced to say as to the botany of Cannabis
sativa might fairly well be characterised as pure speculation, since I have had no oppor-
tunity of personally confirming the impressions obtained from casual observation. Since,
however, it seems to be the wish of the Government that I should offer some remarks, I
may point out that while the forms of the plant met with in India are botanically only
states of Cannabis sativa, I believe that, as with all other cultivated plants, there are
recognisable races of that species. It would indeed be contrary to experience in other
fields of study were it otherwise. The external differences between these forms are however
very slight and such as the botanist is by universal usage permitted to disregard. In the
herbarium they are indeed hardly distinguishable, though, from the cultivator's point of view,
these slight differences may be indicative of widely dissimilar properties. Few botanists
would venture to isolate aus, aman, boro, and rowa races of Oryza sativa; yet the rice
cultivator of Bengal would have no difficulty in distinguishing these and many others; nor in
fixing the period at which each should be sown and the nature of the soil on which its
cultivation would be most successful. This, in my opinion, is an exactly parallel case, and I
might mention many such to the wonderful problem of the production of so widely different
products as bhang, ganja, charas, and hemp fibre from botanically one and the same plant.
Some of the racial characteristics that exist may be mainly due to climate and soil; but it
should not be forgotten that there are generally very potent influences in the production of
races of cultivated plants. It would accordingly be most unwise to set on one side the
possibility of differences, on the ground of these being mainly, or even exclusively, due to
climatic and other such influences.
I hold, therefore, that the study of the living plants on the part of a botanist might
very possibly result in the isolation of the fibre-yielding plant of Cannabis sativa as possessing
certain structural peculiarities more or less constantly associated with that physiological
property, just as I believe that a similar isolation might be possible in the bhang, ganja, and
charas-yielding states of the plant.
2. The practical bearings of this purely botanical contention might be very extensive
and valuable. So far as I am aware, no botanist has as yet explained the formation of the
narcotic in certain forms of Cannabis, and not (or practically not) in others. We may, in
fact, be said to be ignorant of the precise use of that substance in the economy of the
plant. Its discharge from the stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits seems to a large extent
mechanical and to be dependent on some external disturbance, more especially an inter-
ruption to the sexual functions of the individual. It may indeed be said to be uncertain
whether the formation of the narcotic should be regarded as an excretary substance normally
deposited within receptacles, or be viewed, in its early stage at least, as a substance intimate-
ly connected with the metabolism of the plant, but which becomes a useless bye-product of
life under certain conditions. But of course such excreta are only useless to plant life, in
so far that they are not concerned in the further nutritive processes which accompany growth.
This is important in its bearing on the probable chemical history of the narcotic. The solid
and liquid contents of the laticiferous vessels, for example, of the poppy or of the India
rubber plant are very different from the deposits found within glands. The former bear a
distinct analogy to the blood in the veins of animals, while the latter might not inaptly be
characterised as refuse matter. The contents of the laticiferous vessels may, however, be
said to be of two chief kinds-(a) those which are constantly being used up in the growth of
tissues, such as the proteids, carbo-hydrates, fats, and ferments; and (b) the secretions and
excretions ultimately thrown down within these vessels or their vesicular modifications, such
as the resins, gums, alkaloids, etc. Through the action of ferments many of the latter
subsequently become available for the future growth of the plant, so that they are more
properly stores of food than excreta. But the purely excretary matter stored up by plants
in their variously formed receptacles may be here mentioned, such as granules of calcium
oxulate; resins and ethereal oils combined usually into balsam, mucus, various kinds of gums;
and lastly tannins (some tannins are, however, reserve-materials). These and such like are
the excretary deposits, and they are made normally within individual cells dispersed through
the tissue or into cells arranged in rows forming vesicles between the vascular bundles.
Sometimes also the receptacles of secretion are intercellular spaces of various shapes and
sizes filled by the discharges from the abutting cells A well-marked modification of this
might be mentioned in the resin and gum passages which are formed by the separation of