86
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[ APP.
prone to put down every case of insanity to the consumption of drugs, in order to save
themselves the trouble of making a proper inquiry.
The 29th March 1894.
W. TUDBALL, I.C.S.,
Joint Magistrate.
There is nothing for me to add to Mr. Tudball's remarks, save that throughout the en-
quiry the point aimed at was to distinguish between immediate and ultimate causes inducing
lunacy in each case, and, so far as such nice distinctions were possible, between the ultimate
exciting, and the determining cause. That is to say, very briefly, that the fact of the lunatic
having taken some form of hemp, at some time, in greater or less quantity, habitually or
occasionally or rarely was of course noted, and then the bearing of that fact upon his
general condition, physical and mental, was elucidated, e.g., were the charas-smoking and
the "lunacy" both results of an antecedent ultimate cause, the charas being merely an ex-
citing or determining cause ? The appeal to hemp might indicate a want of mental control
suggesting some antecedent mental disease or instability. In the two cases here set down
to hemp we think it fairly established that the hemp was a true "cause," ultimate and ex-
citing. I only add this note to show that we were aware of the less direct terms of the
problem.
ERNEST ROBERTS, M.B.,
The 29th March 1894.
Civil Surgeon, Aligarh.
5. Deoki Das.—No report received.
6. Krishna Parshad.—The lunatic cannot be traced.
7. Gulab, Mussalman.—The lunatic cannot be traced.
(8) Notes of an enquiry held in consultation with the Civil Surgeon into the personal
and family history of Narain Khatri, once a lunatic.
1. Narain came back from Agra very thin and weak, but is now looking fairly well:
does money-changing for his father.
2. Family history.—Ram Charan, his father, says he himself was never mad, nor was
his father or his mother. His brothers were all healthy and long-lived. His sister's husband
is insane; has been so 30 years with lucid intervals; this man took to ganja and charas
since he was mad; his wife, Ram Charan's sister, once had an attack of insanity of three
weeks' duration. Her daughter died mad.
Ram Charan says he never himself indulged in hemp drugs. The women, his sister
and niece, did not indulge in hemp drugs. Ram Charan's wife and her relations are sane.
The family, now fallen into decay, was once one of prosperous traders.
3. Personal history.—Narain first became mad 10 years ago. He began with bad
attacks of fever. In two months he became violent. He was then 21. Up to that time he
had, like all Hindus, taken a little bhang on holidays, but no ganja or charas. After he
became mad he used to smoke ganja up to 4 annas worth and sometimes 8 annas worth in
a day. Then his father chained him up. He demanded ganja, and his father used to give
him about 3/100ths of a tola of ganja daily. After about seven years of this he became very
violent, and his father sent him to the Lunatic Asylum. He did not begin to take ganja for
two years after his madness began; then he used to break his bonds and get ganja in the
bazaar.
He was never subject to epilepsy. He was well conducted up to his madness. Since
he became mad, has been in the habit of constant masturbation. Before he became mad
used to eat, drink, sleep, and work well.