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disrepute extends in many parts of India not only to the consumer of hemp-
preparations, but to the grower of hemp as a fibre-plant.1 A t f i r s t s i g h t t h i s
might seem to be an instance of the transfer of a feeling developed by an
accidental attribute of the occupation to the occupation itself, and ultimately to
its manifestation towards the occupation even when the attribute is absent.
The matter, however, is not so simple as this, for it seems that in most
districts where it exists it is to the grower of hemp for fibre that the opprobrium
chiefly attaches. And as in many parts of India where hemp is not grown, the
same contempt is expressed for the grower of sún ( Crotalaria juncea, L.), it is
almost certain that the explanation which most naturally suggests itself is not
the true explanation. It has to be remembered, too, that the growing of hemp for
its fibre is, even in India, the original motive for its culture; all this considered,
therefore, it seems more probable that the contempt felt for the narcotic, and
therefore for its use, is really a remnant of, or a reflection from, an original
contempt felt for the grower of the crop as a fibre-plant.
The historical notices of the ultimate effects of the use of hemp are also very
numerous, and also all eastern, though they are all comparatively modern.
None of the Sanskrit names appear to indicate them ; one or two indicate the
worst symptoms of an overdose, none of them the results of continued use,
and it is worth remarking also that the Sanskrit terms which signify disrepute
in connection with the use of hemp are the latest of origin.
The first to speak of the ill-effects of its use would seem to have been Taki-
ed-din Ahmad, and he confines himself to describing the moral deterioration that
ensues from the practice ; indeed, he expressly says that 'nobility of external form
alone remains' to those who become habituated to its use.2 I n t h e
I k h t i á r á t ,
Haji Zein says little of the ultimate effects, though he speaks of its being possibly
poisonous, and describes the treatment to be adopted in a case of the sort.
The Makhzan-el-Adwiya would seem to be among the first of the Eastern
works to describe its ultimate effects ; they are said to be indigestion, wasting
of the body, melancholy, impotence, and dropsy.
Rumphius clearly points out why the effect of over-indulgence in the
drug causes sterility. It is from no special action of its own, but is the natural
result of indulgence in the practices which the drug, or rather the substances
for which it is made a vehicle, are taken to promote. The fact that Rumphius
based his opposition to the views of Garcia and Acosta, that the plant was not
aphrodisiac, on the doctrine of Dioscorides, which are that the effect of its
seed was in the contrary direction, 3 has not prevented him from very clearly
demonstrating the soundness of the position he has taken up.
The present general belief that indulgence in the drug leads to per-
manent melancholia, dementia, and even mania, does not seem to be traceable
in the earlier writers, The infatuation or fury of which they speak means
always the immediate, not an ultimate, effect of using hemp.
CHAPTER, IV.—THE CHEMISTRY OF GÁNJÁ.
It is often supposed in India that little is known of the chemical com-
position of hemp. This is, however, a mistake ; though the information on the
subject is scattered throughout the literature of Chemistry for the last half
century, it is, when collected, found to be wonderfully complete ; there are,
however, several points in connection with the subject on which very discrepant
if not diametrically opposed accounts have been given. In the next chapter
light will be thrown on some of these ; in the meantime it is necessay to review
the statements that have been made and to collect the information we possess.
The most convenient method of presenting the information is perhaps the
chronological.
The earliest purely chemical examinations of Cannabis sativa appear to have
been those made in 1821 by TSCHEPPE 4 and in the same year by SCHUEBLER5
¹ Baden-Powell, Panjab Products, p. 506.
² See O'Shaughnessy, Dispensatory, p. 587.
³ Rumphius, Herb. Amboin v,p. 209.
4
Di ssert at i o de fol i i s Cannabi s sat i vae; Tubi ngen ( 1821) ,
5 Chemi sche unt er suchung der Hanf bl aet t er ; Tubi ngen ( 1821).