( 62 )
2. Examination of this extract was not carried beyond ascertaining that it
contained no glucoside, and that it was physiologically inert.
The ash and moisture had been estimated from the fresh drug in the
ordinary way during the drying of the powder for digestion in petroleum ether,
and while digestion in that solvent was going on.
CHAPTER VI.-PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF HEMP.
We have next to review the physiological action of hemp as ascertained
by experiment, apart from the effects attributed to it in the older writings
and in the popular mind, and apart from the composition of the plant.
The seeds and the oil that can be expressed from them are physiologi-
cally inactive. The juices of the plant before it has become old enough to
secrete the resinous material are slightly diuretic. The woody portions of
the stem and twigs and of the roots are at all stages inert ; so, practically at least,
are the large leaves which are lowest down on the stem, and are formed before
the secretion of the resinou
s s u b s t a n c e b e g i n s . O f t h e t w o s e x e s , t h e m a l e i s , a s c o m p a r e d w i t h t h e f e m a l e , p h y s i o l o g i c a l l y i n a c t i v e . I t w o u l d a p p e a r n o t t o
be altogether inert, though experiments are yet wanted to demonstrate the
relative power of male and female plants. It is probable that both sexes are
represented in bhang, but it is certain that in good bhang female plants largely
predominate. In the samples examined by me, seeds are plentiful, but I have
not yet succeeded in detecting male flowers. The leaves of male plants are
smaller as a rule than those of female ones ; but as the largest leaves are rejected
from the latter sex in collecting, and as all the leaves arc reduced to a frag-
mentary condition in commercial bhang, it is impossible to distinguish the two in
any sample. No male plants have been obtainable since the present enquiry
commenced to enable such an examination as is called for to be undertaken.
The effects of bhang, or siddhi, the form in which the resinous material
is diffused throughout the tissues of the leaf, are precisely the same as those
produced by administering gánjá mixed with water. In the one case, however,
more of the active principle is taken than in the other, and the effect of taking
gánjá appears to be, as nearly as may be judged when equal doses of each are
employed, five times that of bháng. There is at first a distinct stage of excite-
ment which, however, passes off and gives place to a torpid condition and
sometimes, but not always, immediately to sleep; sleep usually comes ulti-
mately, but there may be a prolonged period during which there is a feeling
that the mind is in some manner divorced from the body. The stage of excite-
ment is often accompanied by an extreme tendency to laugh, by great thirst,
often also by increased appetite ; sometimes, however, there is a feeling of
constriction of the throat, with a disinclination to attempt to swallow. The
tendency to laugh usually noticed may, however, be replaced by a quite
different tendency to apprehend danger and even to shed tears. These are,
however, the effects produced when a considerable dose is administered to a
subject unaccustomed to use the drug; such as are accustomed to it would
with the same dose exhibit little of the excitement and perhaps none of the
subsequent symptoms.
The use of gánjá, however, is not as a drink. The substance is reduced to
powder and smoked with tobacco in a special small bowl. The effects even in
those unused to the drug, unless the smoke is inhaled, appear to be slight. When
inhaled, however, by those unaccustomed to it, it produces a dizzy intoxication.
In the case of those accustomed to its use, the effects vary according as it
is intended to intoxicate or to merely stimulate. In the latter case it does not
seem to have any very special outward effect, beyond a marked suffusion of
the conjunctiva; even this is by no means invariable.
Bhang, on the other hand, is never smoked; it appears at an early stage
in the history of smoking hemp to have been so used, but it is never used
in this fashion now-a-days.
The effects of charas when smoked (which is almost invariably its mode
of consumption if used as an intoxicant) are precisely those of gánjá ; a smaller
d o s e , s a y l e s s t h a n o n e - t h i r d t h e w e i g h t o fc
h a r a s
t h a t t h e r e i s o f t h e f i n e p o w d e r
which the gánjá smoker puts into the chilam, is used. As the amount of narcotic