108 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
Report of the Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum, Delhi, on the hemp drug cases of 1892.
In reply to your No. 149, dated 16th October last, forwarding a copy of your No. 148,
dated 16th October, to the Revenue Secretary to the Punjab Government, together with
two copies of its enclosures, I have the honour to inform you that I have instituted very
careful enquiries into the past and present history of each of the ten patients admitted
into this asylum during the year 1892, whose insanity was attributed to hemp drugs, and
I beg to give herewith the result of my enquiries.
For facility of reference I am returning one copy of the list of patients forwarded with
your letter under reply.
Full and satisfactory information has been obtained in cases 1, 9, and 10, and a copy
of the reports in each of these cases is herewith forwarded for your information. I think
there can be no doubt from a perusal of these reports that these three patients were
typical and unmistakeable cases of toxic insanity due to the use of hemp drugs. Case No. 1
used to drink bhang in addition to smoking charas, while cases 9 and 10 only smoked
charas. The last man, viz., Nand Lall, was sent to me by the Deputy Commissioner for
examination in November last, i.e., about 5 months after his second discharge from the Asy-
lum, and I had, therefore, the opportunity of cross-examining him very carefully myself. He
was in the full possession all his faculties and was, in fact, a man of more than usual
intelligence for a villager. His evidence, therefore, is particularly interesting. I remember
this man very well on his first admission, to the Asylum. He was extremely noisy and
abusive, absolutely incoherent in his speech, and could not be made to speak a single word
of sense, tore up his clothes and insisted on going about absolutely naked, would not sleep,
and was incessantly on the move. This was, as far as I am able to form an opinion, a
typical case of toxic insanity due to charas-smoking and all the cases I have seen of insanity
due to charas have been very similar to this one, though I cannot say that there are any
symptoms peculiar to this form of toxic insanity. The man became rapidly better daily
after his admission into the Asylum and was released 21 days afterwards apparently per-
fectly sane. He returned to his usual avocation of grazing cattle and again fell in with
the fakir, who, in the first place, induced him to smoke charas. He again took to smoking
charas, and within a month was as insane as ever and was brought back to the Asylum. On
his second admission his recovery to his senses was not quite so rapid, but he was practi-
cally sane again 10 weeks afterwards, but as his too early release on the first occasion was
attended with such disastrous consequences it was thought advisable to detain him in the
Asylum for some months. On his second release I particulary warned him against having
anything to do with the fakir and he promised me he would never smoke charas again,
and the result has been that the man has remained perfectly sane ever since.
Cases Nos. 1 and 9 were both, as far as one can say, undoubtedly types of toxic in-
sanity due to hemp drugs. Their symptoms were very similar to those of Nand Lall and
they were both discharged quite cured from the Asylum, but from the enquiries made by
the District Magistrates of Mozuffarnagar and Karnal, it appears that they have both
taken to smoking charas again since their discharge and both were apparently more or
less of unsound mind when last seen. The chances are that both these men, if they con-
tinue to smoke charas, will sooner or later become insane again, their mental condition
depending, I fancy, a good deal on the quantity of charas they can afford to smoke daily.
Case No. 2, 'Nath,' died in the Asylum of mitral disease of the heart 19 months after
his admission. This man's previous history has been very carefully enquired into by the
Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar, and from the information obtainable, there seems to
be no doubt that he was a confirmed smoker of both charas and ganja. He had been in-
sane for 4 months on a previous occasion and was admitted into the Jalandhar Civil Hos-
pital, where he was treated and cured. Six months afterwards he again became insane and
was sent to this Asylum. The man's symptoms on first admission here were very like
those of toxic insanity, but latterly the case became more like dementia. He used to sit
apart from the other lunatics, seldom spoke and then only incoherently, had lost all sense