ON THE
PREPARATIONS
OF
THE INDIAN HEMP,
OR
GUNJAH,
(CANNABIS INDICA).
THEIR EFFECTS ON THE ANIMAL SYSTEM IN HEALTH, AND
THEIR UTILITY IN THE TREATMENT OF TETANUS
AND OTHER CONVULSIVE DISEASES.
BY
W. B. O’SHAUGHNESSY, M.D.,
BENGAL ARMY,
Late Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica in the Medical College
of Calcutta.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY S. TAYLOR, 6, CHANDOS-STREET, STRAND.
[Reprinted from the Transactions of the Medical Society of Calcutta,
1838; and from the Provincial Medical Journal, 1843.]
INDIAN HEMP, &c.
The narcotic effects of hemp are popularly known in the South of
Africa, South America, Turkey, Egypt, Asia Minor, India, and the
adjacent territories of the Malays, Burmese, and Siamese. In all
these countries hemp is used in various forms, by the dissipated
and depraved, as the ready agent of a pleasing intoxication. In the
popular medicine of these nations, we find it extensively employed
for a multitude of affections, especially those in which spasm or
neuralgic pain are the prominent symptoms. But in Western Europe its
use, either as a stimulant or as a remedy, is equally unknown. With the
exception of the trial, as a frolic, of the Egyptian “hasheesh,” by a
few youths in Marseilles, and of the clinical use of the wine of hemp
by Hahnemann, as shown in a subsequent extract, I have been unable to
trace any notice of the employment of this drug in Europe.
Much difference of opinion exists on the question, whether the hemp
so abundant in Europe, even in high northern latitudes, is identical
in specific characters with the hemp of Asia Minor and India. The
extraordinary symptoms produced by the latter depend on a resinous
secretion with which it abounds, and which seems totally absent in
the European kind. The closest physical resemblance or even identity
exists between both plants; difference of climate seems to me more
than sufficient to account for the absence of the resinous secretion,
and consequent want of narcotic power in that indigenous in colder
countries.
In the subsequent article I first endeavour to present an adequate
view of what has been recorded of the early history, the popular uses,
and employment in medicine of this powerful and valuable substance; I
then proceed to notice several experiments which I have instituted on
animals, with the view to ascertain its effects on the healthy system;
and, lastly, I submit an abstract of the clinical details of the
treatment of several patients afflicted with hydrophobia, tetanus, and
other convulsive disorders, in which a preparation of hemp was employed
with results, which seem to me to warrant our anticipating from its
more extensive and impartial use no inconsiderable addition to the
resources of the physician.
In the historical and statistical department of the subject, I owe
my cordial thanks for most valuable assistance to the distinguished
traveller the Syed Keramut Ali, Mootawulee of the Hooghly Imambarrah,
and also to the Hakim Mirza Abdul Razes of Teheran, who have furnished
me with interesting details regarding the consumption of hemp in
Candahar, Cabul, and the countries between the Indus and Herat. The
Pandit Moodoosudun Gootu has favored me with notices of the statements
regarding hemp in the early Sanscrit authors on materia medica; to
the celebrated Kamalakantha Vidyalanka, the Pandit of the Asiatic
Society, I have also to record my acknowledgments; Mr. DaCosta has
obligingly supplied me with copious notes from the “Mukzun-ul-Udwieh,”
and other Persian and Hindee systems of materia medica. For information
relative to the varieties of the drug, and its consumption in Bengal,
Mr. McCann, the deputy superintendent of police, deserves my thanks;
and, lastly, to the medical gentlemen named in the sequel, I feel much
indebted for the clinical details with which they have enriched the
subject.
_Botanical Characters--Chemical Properties--Production._
_Botanical Description._--Assuming, with Lindley and other eminent
writers, that the _Cannabis sativa_ and _Indica_ are identical, we find
that the plant is diœcious, annual, about three feet high, covered
over with a fine pubescence; the stem is erect, branched, bright
green, angular; leaves, alternate or opposite, on long weak petioles;
digitate, scabrous, with linear, lanceolate, sharply serrated leaflets,
tapering into a long smooth entire point; stipules subulate; clusters
of flowers axillary with subulate bractes; males lax and drooping,
branched and leafless at base; females erect, simple and leafy at the
base. Calyx downy, five parted, imbricated. Stamens five; anthers large
and pendulous. Calyx covered with brown glands. Ovary roundish with
pendulous ovule, and two long filiform glandular stigmas; achenium
ovate, one seeded.--_Vide Lindley’s Flora Medica_, p. 299.
The fibres of the stems are long and extremely tenacious, so as to
afford the best tissue for cordage, thus constituting the material for
one of the most important branches of European manufactures.
The seed is simply albuminous and oily, and is devoid of all narcotic
properties.
_Chemical Properties._--In certain seasons and in warm countries a
resinous juice exudes and concretes on the leaves, slender stems, and
flowers; the mode of removing this juice will be subsequently detailed.
Separated and in masses it constitutes the _churrus_[1] of Nipal and
Hindostan, and to this, the type or basis of all the hemp preparations,
are the powers of these drugs attributable.
The resin of the hemp is soluble in alcohol and æther; partially
soluble in alkaline, insoluble in acid solutions; when pure, of a
blackish grey color; hard at 90°; softens at higher temperatures, and
fuses readily; soluble in the fixed and in several volatile oils. Its
odor is fragrant and narcotic; taste slightly warm, bitterish, and
acrid.
The dried hemp plant, which has flowered and _from which the resin has
not been removed_, is called GUNJAH. It sells for 1s. 6d. to 2s. for 2
lbs. in the Calcutta bazaars, and yields to alcohol twenty per 100 of
resinous extract, composed of the resin (_churrus_), and green coloring
matter (_chlorophylle_). Distilled with a large quantity of water or
spirit, traces of essential oil pass over, and the distilled liquor
has the powerful narcotic odor of the plant. The _gunjah_ is sold for
smoking chiefly. The bundles of _gunjah_ are about two feet long and
four inches in diameter, and contain twenty-four plants. The color is
dusky green; the odor agreeably narcotic; the whole plant resinous and
adhesive to the touch.
The larger leaves and capsules, without the stalks, are called “_bang_,
_subjee_, or _sidhee_.” They are used for making an intoxicating drink,
for smoking, and in the conserve or confection termed _majoon_. _Bang_
is cheaper than _gunjah_, and, though less powerful, is sold at such a
low price that for less than a half-penny enough can be purchased to
intoxicate an “experienced” person.
According to Mr. McCann’s notes, the _gunjah_ consumed in Bengal is
chiefly brought from Mirzapore and Ghazeepore, being extensively
cultivated near Gwalior and in Tirhoot. The natives cut the plant when
in flower, allow it to dry for three days, and then lay it in bundles
averaging two pounds weight each, which are distributed to the licensed
dealers. The best kinds are brought from Gwalior and Bhurtpore, and it
is also cultivated, of good quality, in a few gardens round Calcutta.
In Jessore, I am informed, the drug is produced of excellent quality
and to a very considerable extent of cultivation. In Central India,
and the Saugor territory, and in Nipal, _churrus_ is collected during
the hot season in the following singular manner:--Men clad in leathern
dresses run through the hemp fields, brushing through the plant with
all possible violence; the soft resin adheres to the leather, and is
subsequently scraped off and kneaded into balls, which sell from 10s.
to 12s. for 2 lbs. A still finer kind, the _momeea_ or waxen _churrus_,
is collected by the hand in Nipal and sells for nearly double the price
of the ordinary kind. In Nipal, Dr. McKinnon informs me, the leathern
attire is dispensed with, and the resin is gathered on the skins of
naked coolies. In Persia, it is stated by Mirza Abdul Razes that the
_churrus_ is prepared by pressing the resinous plant on coarse cloths,
and then scraping it from these and melting it in a pot with a little
warm water. He considers the _churrus_ of Herat as the best and most
powerful of all the varieties of the drug.
_Popular Uses._
The preparations of hemp are used for the purpose of intoxication as
follows:--
_Sidhee_, _subjee_, and _bang_ (synonymous) are used with water as
a drink, which is thus prepared. About three tola weight, 540 troy
grains, are well washed with cold water, then dried and rubbed to
powder, mixed with black pepper, cucumber and melon seeds, sugar, half
a pint of milk, and an equal quantity of water. This is considered
sufficient to intoxicate an habituated person. Half the quantity is
enough for a novice. This composition is chiefly used by the Mahomedans
of the better class.
Another recipe is as follows:--
The same quantity of _sidhee_ is washed, dried, and ground, mixed with
black pepper, and a quart of cold water added. This is drank at one
sitting. This is the favorite beverage of the Hindus who practice this
vice, especially the Birjobassies and many of the Rajpootana soldiery.
From either of these beverages intoxication will ensue in half an hour.
Almost invariably the inebriation is of the most cheerful kind, causing
the person to sing and dance, to eat food with great relish, and to
seek aphrodisiac enjoyments. In persons of a quarrelsome disposition
it occasions, as might be expected, an exasperation of their natural
tendency. The intoxication lasts about three hours, when sleep
supervenes. No nausea or sickness of the stomach succeeds, nor are the
bowels at all affected; next day there is slight giddiness and much
vascularity of the eyes, but no other symptom worth recording.
_Gunjah_ is used for smoking only: one rupee weight, 180 grains, and a
little dried tobacco are rubbed together in the palm of the hand with
a few drops of water. This suffices for three persons. A little tobacco
is placed in the pipe first, then a layer of the prepared _gunjah_,
then more tobacco, and the fire above all.
Four or five persons usually join in this debauch. The hookah is passed
round, and each person takes a single draught. Intoxication ensues
almost instantly; and from one draught to the unaccustomed, within half
an hour; and after four or five inspirations to those more practised
in the vice. The effects differ from those occasioned by the _sidhee_.
Heaviness, laziness, and agreeable reveries ensue, but the person can
be readily roused, and is able to discharge routine occupations, such
as pulling the punkah, waiting at table, &c.
The _majoon_, or hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter,
flour, milk, and _sidhee_ or _bang_. The process has been repeatedly
performed before me by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of
resort for hemp devotees in Calcutta, and who is considered the best
artist in his profession. Four ounces of _sidhee_ and an equal quantity
of _ghee_ (clarified butter) are placed in an earthen or well-tinned
vessel, a pint of water added, and the whole warmed over a charcoal
fire. The mixture is constantly stirred until the water all boils away,
which is known by the crackling noise of the melted butter on the sides
of the vessel; the mixture is then removed from the fire, squeezed
through cloth while hot--by which an oleaginous solution of the active
principles and coloring matter of the hemp is obtained--and the leaves,
fibres, &c., remaining on the cloth are thrown away.
The green oily solution soon concretes into a buttery mass, and is
then well washed by the hand with soft water so long as the water
becomes colored. The coloring matter and an extractive substance are
thus removed, and a very pale green mass, of the consistence of simple
ointment, remains. The washings are thrown away; Ameer says that these
are intoxicating, and produce constriction of the throat, great pain,
and very disagreeable and dangerous symptoms.
The operator then takes two pounds of sugar, and, adding a little
water, places it in a pipkin over the fire. When the sugar dissolves
and froths, two ounces of milk are added; a thick scum rises and is
removed; more milk and a little water are added from time to time,
and the boiling continued about an hour, the solution being carefully
stirred until it becomes an adhesive clear syrup, ready to solidify
on a cold surface; four ounces of _tyre_ (new milk dried before the
sun) in fine powder are now stirred in, and, lastly, the prepared
butter of hemp is introduced, brisk stirring being continued for a few
minutes. A few drops of uttur of roses are then quickly sprinkled in,
and the mixture poured from the pipkin on a flat cold dish or slab.
The mass concretes immediately into a thin cake, which is divided into
small lozenge-shaped pieces. Thus prepared it sells for 8s. the 2 lbs;
one drachm, by weight, will intoxicate a beginner; three drachms one
experienced in its use. The taste is sweet, and the odor very agreeable.
Ameer states that there are seven or eight _majoon_ makers in Calcutta;
that sometimes, by special order of customers, he introduces stramonium
seeds, but never nux vomica; that all classes of persons, including the
lower Portuguese or “Kala Feringhees,” and especially their females,
consume the drug; that it is most fascinating in its effects, producing
extatic happiness, a persuasion of high rank, a sensation of flying,
voracious appetite, and intense aphrodisiac desire. He denies that its
continued use leads to madness, impotence, or to the numerous evil
consequences described by the Arabic and Persian physicians. Although
I disbelieve Ameer’s statements on this point, his description of the
immediate effects of _majoon_ is strictly and accurately correct.
Most carnivorous animals eat it greedily, and very soon experience its
narcotic effects, becoming ludicrously drunk, but seldom suffering any
worse consequences.
_Historical Details--Notices of Hemp and its Uses, by the Sanscrit,
Arabic, and Persian Writers._
The preceding notice suffices to explain the subsequent historical
and medicinal details. I premise the historical, in order to show the
exact state of our knowledge of the subject, when I attempted its
investigation.
Although the most eminent of the Arabic and Persian authors concur
in referring the origin of the practice of hemp intoxication to the
natives of Hindostan, it is remarkable that few traces can be detected
of the prevalence of the vice at any early period in India.
The Pandit Moodoosudun Gooptu finds that the “Rajniguntu,” a standard
treatise on materia medica, which he estimates vaguely at 600
years date, gives a clear account of this agent. Its synonymes are
“_bijoya_,” “_ujoya_,” and “_joya_,” names which mean promoters of
success; “_brijputta_,” or the strengthener, or the strong-leaved;
“_chapola_,” the causer of a reeling gait; “_ununda_,” or the
laughter-moving; “_hursini_,” the exciter of sexual desire. Its effects
on man are described as excitant, heating, astringent. It is added that
it “destroys phlegm, expels flatulence, induces costiveness, sharpens
the memory, increases eloquence, excites the appetite, and acts as a
general tonic.”
The “Rajbulubha,” a Sanscrit treatise of rather later date, alludes
to the use of hemp in gonorrhœa, and repeats the statements of the
“Rajniguntu.” In the Hindu Tantra, a religious treatise, teaching
peculiar and mystical formulæ and rites for the worship of the deities,
it is said, moreover, that _sidhee_ is more intoxicating than wine.
In the celebrated “Susruta,” which is perhaps the most ancient of all
Hindu medical works, it is written, that persons laboring under catarrh
should, with other remedies, use internally the _bijoya_ or _sidhee_.
The effects, however, are not described.
The learned Kamalakantha Vidyalanka has traced a notice of hemp in
the 5th chapter of _Menu_, where Brahmins are prohibited to use the
following substances--_palandoo_ or onions, _gunjara_ or _gunjah_, and
such condiments as have strong and pungent scents.
The Arabic and Persian writers are, however, far more voluminous and
precise in their accounts of these fascinating preparations. In the 1st
vol. of De Sacy’s “Crestomathie Arabe” we find an extremely interesting
summary of the writings of Takim Eddin Makrizi on this subject. Lane
has noticed it too with his usual ability in his admirable work, “the
Modern Egyptians.” From these two sources, the MS. notes of the Syed
Keramut Ali and Mr. DaCosta, and a curious paper communicated by our
friend Mirza Abdul Razes, a most intelligent Persian physician, the
following epitome is compiled:--
Makrizi treats of the hemp in his glowing description of the celebrated
Canton de la Timbaliere, the ancient pleasure grounds, in the vicinity
of Cairo. This quarter, after many vicissitudes, is now a heap of
ruins. In it was situated a cultivated valley named Djoneina, which
we are informed was the theatre of all conceivable abominations.
It was famous above all for the sale of the _hasheeha_, which is
still greedily consumed by the dregs of the populace, and from the
consumption of which sprung the excesses which led to the name of
“assassin” being given to the Saracens in the Holy Wars. The history
of the drug the author treats of thus:--The oldest work in which hemp
is noticed is a treatise by Hasan, who states that in the year 658, M.
E. the Sheikh Djafar Shirazi, a monk of the order of Haider, learned
from his master the history of the discovery of hemp. Haider, the
chief of ascetics and self-chasteners, lived in rigid privation on a
mountain between Nishabor and Ramah, where he established a monastery
of Fakirs. Ten years he had spent in this retreat without leaving it
for a moment, till one burning summer’s day when he departed alone to
the fields. On his return an air of joy and gaiety was imprinted on
his countenance; he received the visits of his brethren and encouraged
their conversation. On being questioned, he stated that, struck by the
aspect of a plant which danced in the heat as if with joy, while all
the rest of the vegetable creation was torpid, he had gathered and
eaten of its leaves. He led his companions to the spot,--all ate and
all were similarly excited. A tincture of the hemp leaf in wine or
spirit seems to have been the favourite formula in which the Sheikh
Haider indulged himself. An Arab poet sings of Haider’s _emerald_
cup--an evident allusion to the rich green colour of the tincture of
the drug. The Sheikh survived the discovery ten years, and subsisted
chiefly on this herb, and on his death his disciples by his desire
planted it in an arbour about his tomb.
From this saintly sepulchre the knowledge of the effects of hemp is
stated to have spread into Khorasan. In Chaldea it was unknown until
728 M. E. during the reign of the Khalif Mostansir Billah; the kings of
Ormus and Bahrein then introduced it into Chaldea, Syria, Egypt, and
Turkey.
In Khorasan, however, it seems that the date of the use of hemp is
considered to be far prior to Haider’s era. Biraslan, an Indian
pilgrim, the contemporary of Cosröes,[2] is believed to have introduced
and diffused the custom through Khorasan and Yemen. In proof of the
great antiquity of the practice, certain passages in the works of
Hippocrates may be cited, in which some of its properties are clearly
described, but the difficulty of deciding whether the passages be
spurious or genuine, renders the fact of little value. Dioscorides
(lib. ij. cap. 169), describes hemp, but merely notices the emollient
properties of its seeds; its intoxicating effects must consequently be
regarded as unknown to the Greeks prior to his era, which is generally
agreed to be about the second century of the Christian epoch, and
somewhat subsequent to the life-time of Pliny.
In the narrative of Makrizi we also learn that oxymel and acids are the
most powerful antidotes to the effects of this narcotic; next to these,
emetics, cold bathing, and sleep; and we are further told that it
possesses diuretic, astringent, and especially aphrodisiac properties.
Ibn Beitar was the first to record its tendency to produce mental
derangement, and he even states that it occasionally proves fatal.
In 780 M. E. very severe ordinances were passed in Egypt against the
practice; the Djoneina garden was rooted up, and all those convicted of
the use of the drug were subjected to the extraction of their teeth;
but in 799 the custom re-established itself with more than original
vigor. Makrizi draws an expressive picture of the evils this vice then
inflicted on its votaries--“As its consequence, general corruption of
sentiments and manners ensued, modesty disappeared, every base and evil
passion was openly indulged in, and nobility of external form alone
remained to these infatuated beings.”
_Medicinal Properties assigned to Hemp by the Ancient Arabian and
Persian Writers, and by Modern European Authors._
In the preceding notice of Makrizi’s writings on this subject, we
have confined ourselves chiefly to historical details, excluding
descriptions of supposed medicinal effects. The Mukzun-ul-Udwieh and
the Persian MS. in our possession, inform us as to the properties which
the ancient physicians attributed to this powerful narcotic.
In Mr. DaCosta’s MS. version of the chapter on hemp in the
Mukzun-ul-Udwieh, _churrus_, we are informed, if smoked through a pipe,
causes torpor and intoxication, and often proves fatal to the smoker.
Three kinds are noticed, the _garden_, _wild_, and _mountain_, of which
the last is deemed the strongest; the seeds are called _sheadana_ or
_shaldaneh_ in Persia. These are said to be “a compound of opposite
qualities, cold and dry in the third degree--that is to say, stimulant
and sedative, imparting at first a gentle reviving heat, and then a
considerable refrigerant effect.”
The contrary qualities of the plant, its stimulant and sedative
effects, are prominently dwelt on. “They at first exhilarate the
spirits, cause cheerfulness, give color to the complexion, bring on
intoxication, excite the imagination into the most rapturous ideas,
produce thirst, increase appetite, excite concupiscence. Afterwards the
sedative effects begin to preside, the spirits sink, the vision darkens
and weakens; and madness, melancholy, fearfulness, dropsy, and such
like distempers, are the sequel--and the seminal secretions dry up.
These effects are increased by sweets, and combated by acids.”
The author of the Mukzun-ul-Udwieh further informs us--
“The leaves make a good snuff for deterging the brain; the juice of
the leaves applied to the head as a wash, removes dandriff and vermin;
drops of the juice thrown into the ear allay pain and destroy worms or
insects. It checks diarrhœa, is useful in gonorrhœa, restrains seminal
secretions, and is diuretic. The bark has a similar effect.”
“The powder is recommended as an external application to fresh wounds
and sores, and for causing granulations; a poultice of the boiled root
and leaves for discussing inflammations, and cure of erysipelas, and
for allaying neuralgic pains. The dried leaves, bruised and spread
on a castor oil leaf, cure hydrocele and swelled testes. The _dose_
internally is one _direm_, or forty-eight grains. The antidotes are
emetics, cow’s milk, hot water, and sorrel wine.”
Alluding to its popular uses, the author dwells on the eventual evil
consequences of the indulgence; weakness of the digestive organs first
ensues, followed by flatulency, indigestion, swelling of the limbs
and face, change of complexion, diminution of sexual vigor, loss of
teeth, heaviness, cowardice, depraved and wicked ideas; scepticism in
religious tenets, licentiousness, and ungodliness are also enumerated
in the catalogue of deplorable results.
The medicinal properties of hemp, in various forms, are the subject
of some interesting notes by Mirza Abdul Razes. “It produces a
ravenous appetite and constipation, arrests the secretions except
that of the liver, excites wild imagining, especially a sensation of
ascending, forgetfulness of all that happens during its use, and such
mental exultation, that _the beholders attribute it to supernatural
inspiration_.”
Mirza Abdul considers hemp to be a powerful exciter of the flow of
bile, and relates cases of its efficacy in restoring appetite--of
its utility as an external application as a poultice with milk, in
relieving hæmorrhoids, and internally in gonorrhœa. A quarter of a
drachm of _bangh_ is given in water as the dose in gonorrhœa. He
states, also, that the habitual smokers of _gunjah_ generally die
of diseases of the lungs, dropsy, and anasarca, “so do the eaters
of _majoon_ and smokers of _sidhee_, but at a later period. The
inexperienced on first taking it are often senseless for a day, some go
mad, others are known to die.”
In the 35th chapter of the 5th volume of “Rumphius’ Herbarium
Amboinense,” p. 208, Ed. Amsterd. A.D. 1695, we find a long and very
good account of the hemp, illustrated by two excellent plates. The
subjoined is an epitome of Rumphius’ article:--
Rumphius first describes botanically the male and female hemp plants,
of which he gives two admirable drawings. He assigns the upper
provinces of India as its _habitat_, and states it to be cultivated in
Java and Amboyna. He then notices very briefly the exciting effects
ascribed to the leaf, and to mixtures thereof with spices, camphor,
and opium. He alludes doubtingly to its alleged aphrodisiac powers,
and states that the kind of mental excitement it produces depends on
the temperament of the consumer. He quotes a passage from Galen, lib.
i. (de aliment. facult.), in which it is asserted that in that great
writer’s time it was customary to give hemp seed to the guests at
banquets as a promoter of hilarity and enjoyment. Rumphius adds, that
the Mahomedáns in his neighbourhood frequently sought for the male
plant from his garden, to be given to persons afflicted with virulent
gonorrhœa and with asthma, or the affection which is popularly called
“stitches in the side.” He tells us, moreover, that the powdered leaves
check diarrhœa, are stomachic, cure the malady named _pitao_, and
moderate excessive secretion of bile. He mentions the use of hemp smoke
as an enema in strangulated hernia, and of the leaves as an antidote
to poisoning by orpiment. Lastly, he notices in the two subsequent
chapters varieties of hemp, which he terms the _gunjah sativa_ and
_gunjah agrestis_.
In the _Hortus Malabaricus_, Rheede’s article on the hemp is a mere
echo of Rumphius’ statements.
Among modern European writers the only information I could trace on the
_medicinal_ use of hemp _in Europe_, is in the recent work of Nees v.
Esenbeck, from which the following is an extract kindly supplied by Dr.
Wallich:--
“The fresh herb of the hemp has a very powerful and unpleasant
narcotic smell, and is used in the East in combination with opium in
the preparation of intoxicating potions, &c. It is probable that the
_nepenthe_ of the ancients was prepared from the leaves of this plant.
Many physicians, Hahnemann among them, prescribe the vinous extract
in various nervous disorders, where opium and hyoscyamus used to be
employed, being less heating and devoid of bitterness.”[3]
No information as to the _medicinal_ effects of hemp exists in the
standard works on materia medica, to which I have access. Soubeiran,
Feé, Merat and de Lens, in their admirable dictionary; Chevalier and
Richard, Roques (Phytographie Medicale); Ratier and Henry (Pharmacopeé
Française); and the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, are all
equally silent on the subject.
In “Ainslie’s Materia Indica,” 2nd vol., we find three notices of this
plant and its preparations.
At page 39 “banghie” (_Tamul_), with the Persian and Hindee synonymes
of “beng” and “subjee,” is described as an intoxicating liquor prepared
with the leaves of the _gunjah_ or hemp plant.
Under the head “_gunjah_,” Ainslie gives numerous synonymes, and tells
us that the leaves are sometimes prescribed in cases of diarrhœa; and
in conjunction with turmeric, onions, and warm gingilie oil, are made
into an unction for painful protruded piles. Dr. Ainslie also gives a
brief view of the popular uses and botanical characters of the plant.
_Majoon_, lastly, is described by Dr. Ainslie, page 176, as a
preparation of sugar, milk, ghee, poppy seeds, flowers of the datura,
powder of nux vomica, and sugar. The true _majoon_, however, as
prepared in Bengal, contains neither datura nor nux vomica. I have
already described the process by which it has been manufactured before
me.
In the “Journal de Pharmacie,” the most complete magazine in existence
on all pharmaceutical subjects, we find hemp noticed in several
volumes. In the “Bulletin de Pharmacie,” t. V.A. 1810, p. 400, we
find it briefly described by M. Rouyer, apothecary to Napoleon, and
member of the Egyptian scientific commission, in a paper on the popular
remedies of Egypt. With the leaves and tops, he tells us, collected
before ripening, the Egyptians prepare a conserve, which serves as
the base of the _berch_, the _diasmouk_, and the _bernaouy_. Hemp
leaves reduced to powder, and incorporated with honey or stirred with
water, constitute the _berch_ of the poor classes. The same work also
(Bulletin, vol. i., p. 523, A. 1809) contains a very brief notice of
the intoxicating preparations of hemp, read by M. De Sacy before the
Institute of France, in July, 1809. M. De Sacy’s subsequent analysis
of Makrizi, of which I have given an outline, is, however, much more
copious in details than the article in the Bulletin.
Professor Royle in his admirable work, entitled “Illustrations of the
Botany, &c. of the Himalayas,” p. 334, gives a very brief notice of the
synonymes and epithets of the hemp resin, and mentions its intoxicating
properties, but affords us no information on its medicinal effects.
_Experiments by the Author--Inferences as to the Action of the Drug on
Animals and Man._
Such was the amount of preliminary information before me, by which I
was guided in my subsequent attempts to gain more accurate knowledge
of the action, powers, and possible medicinal applications of this
remarkable agent.
There was sufficient to show that hemp possesses, in small doses, an
extraordinary power of stimulating the digestive organs, exciting the
cerebral system, of acting also on the generative apparatus. Larger
doses, again, were shown by the historical statements to induce
insensibility or to act as a powerful sedative. The influence of the
drug in allaying pain was equally manifest in all the memoirs referred
to. As to the evil sequelæ so unanimously dwelt on by all writers,
these did not appear to me so numerous, so immediate, or so formidable,
as many which may be clearly traced to over-indulgence in other
powerful stimulants or narcotics--viz, alcohol, opium, or tobacco.
The dose in which the hemp preparations might be administered,
constituted, of course, one of the first objects of inquiry. Ibn Beitar
had mentioned a _direm_, or forty-eight grains of _churrus_; but this
dose seemed to me so enormous, that I deemed it expedient to proceed
with much smaller quantities. How fortunate was this caution, the
sequel will sufficiently denote.
An extensive series of experiments on animals was in the first place
undertaken, among which the following may be cited:--
_Expt._ 1.--Ten grains of Nipalese _churrus_, dissolved in spirit
were given to a middling sized dog. In half an hour he became stupid
and sleepy, dozing at intervals, starting up, wagging his tail as if
extremely contented; he ate some food greedily; on being called to he
staggered to and fro, and his face assumed a look of utter and helpless
drunkenness. These symptoms lasted about two hours, and then gradually
passed away; in six hours he was perfectly well and lively.
_Expt._ 2.--One drachm of _majoon_ was given to a small sized dog;
he ate it with great delight, and in twenty minutes was ridiculously
drunk; in four hours his symptoms passed away, also without harm.
_Expts._ 3, 4, and 5.--Three kids had ten grains each of the alcoholic
extract of _gunjah_. In one no effect was produced; in the second there
was much heaviness, and some inability to move; in the third a marked
alteration of countenance was conspicuous, but no further effect.
_Expt._ 6.--Twenty grains were given, dissolved in a little spirit, to
a dog of very small size. In a quarter of an hour he was intoxicated;
in half an hour he had great difficulty of movement; in an hour he had
lost all power over the hinder extremities, which were rather stiff but
flexible; sensibility did not seem to be impaired, and the circulation
was natural. He readily acknowledged calls by an attempt to rise up. In
four hours he was quite well.
In none of these or several other experiments was there the least
indication of pain, or any degree of convulsive movement observed.
It seems needless to dwell on the details of each experiment;
suffice it to say that they led to one remarkable result--that while
carnivorous animals and fish, dogs, cats, swine, vultures, crows, and
adjutants, invariably exhibited the intoxicating influence of the drug,
the graminivorous, such as the horse,[4] deer, monkey, goat, sheep, and
cow, experienced but trivial effects from any dose we administered.
Encouraged by these results, no hesitation could be felt as to the
perfect safety of giving the resin of hemp an extensive trial in the
cases in which its apparent powers promised the greatest degree of
utility.
_Cases of Rheumatism treated by Hemp. Catalepsy produced by one grain._
The first cases selected were two of acute rheumatism and one of that
disease in the chronic form, occurring among the patients in the
Clinical Hospital of the Medical College. In the two former but little
relief had been derived from a fair trial of antiphlogistic measures,
and of Dover’s powder with antimonials; in the last case, sarsaparilla
at first, and subsequently the Hemidesmus Indicus with warm baths had
been tried without advantage.
On the 6th November, 1838, one grain of the resin of hemp was
administered in solution, at two, p.m., to each of these three patients.
At four, p.m., it was reported that one was becoming very talkative,
was singing songs, calling loudly for an extra supply of food, and
declaring himself in perfect health. The other two patients remained
unaffected.
At six, p.m., I received a report to the same effect, but stating that
the first patient was now falling asleep.
At eight, p.m., I was alarmed by an emergent note from Nobinchunder
Mitter, the clinical clerk on duty, desiring my immediate attendance
at the hospital, as the patient’s symptoms were very peculiar and
formidable. I went to the hospital without delay, and found him lying
on his cot quite insensible, but breathing with perfect regularity,
his pulse and skin natural, and the pupils freely contractile on the
approach of light.
Alarmed and pained beyond description at such a state of things, I
hurried to the other patients--found one asleep, the third awake,
intelligent, and free from any symptoms of intoxication or alarm.
Returning then to the first, an emetic was directed to be prepared,
and while waiting for it I chanced to lift up the patient’s arm. The
professional reader will judge of my astonishment, when I found that
it remained in the posture in which I placed it. It required but a
very brief examination of the limbs to find that the patient had by
the influence of this narcotic been thrown into that strange and most
extraordinary of all nervous conditions, into that state which so few
have seen, and the existence of which so many still discredit--the
genuine _catalepsy_ of the nosologist.
It had been my good fortune years before to have witnessed two
unequivocal cases of this disorder. One occurred in the female clinical
ward in Edinburgh, under Dr. Duncan’s treatment, and was reported by
myself for the “Lancet,” in 1828. The second took place in 1831, in a
family with whom I resided in London. This case was witnessed by Dr.
Silver, Mr. G. Mills, and several other professional friends. In both
these cases the cataleptic state was established in full perfection,
and in both the paroxysm terminated suddenly without any evil
consequence.
To return to our patient; we raised him to a sitting posture, and
placed his arms and limbs in every imaginable attitude. A waxen figure
could not be more pliant or more stationary in each position, no matter
how contrary to the natural influence of gravity on the part.
To all impressions he was meanwhile almost insensible; he made no
sign of understanding questions; could not be aroused. A sinapism to
the epigastrium caused no sign of pain. The pharynx and its coadjutor
muscles acted freely in the deglutition of the stimulant remedies which
I thought it advisable to administer, although the manifest cataleptic
state had freed me altogether of the anxiety under which I before
labored.
The second patient had meanwhile been roused by the noise in the ward,
and seemed vastly amused at the strange aspect and the statue-like
attitudes in which the first patient had been placed, when on a
sudden he uttered a loud peal of laughter, and exclaimed that “four
spirits were springing with his bed into the air.” In vain we
attempted to pacify him; his laughter became momentarily more and more
incontrollable. We now observed that the limbs were rather rigid, and
in a few minutes more his arms or legs could be bent, and would remain
in any desired position. A strong stimulant drink was immediately
given, and a sinapism applied. Of the latter he made no complaint, but
his intoxication led him to such noisy exclamations that we had to
remove him to a separate room; here he soon became tranquil, his limbs
in less than an hour gained their natural condition, and in two hours
he represented himself to be perfectly well and excessively hungry.
The first patient continued cataleptic till one, a.m., when
consciousness and voluntary motion quickly returned, and by two, a.m.,
he was exactly in the same state as the second patient.
The third man experienced no effect whatever, and on further inquiry it
was found that he was habituated to the use of _gunjah_ in the pipe.
On the following day it gave me much pleasure to find that both the
individuals above mentioned were not only uninjured by the narcotic,
but much relieved of their rheumatism; they were discharged quite cured
in three days after.
The fourth case of trial was an old muscular cooley, a rheumatic
malingerer, and to him half a grain of hemp resin was given in a little
spirit. The first day’s report will suffice for all:--In two hours the
old gentleman became talkative and musical, told several stories, and
sang songs to a circle of highly delighted auditors, ate the dinners
of two persons subscribed for him in the ward, sought also for other
luxuries we can scarcely venture to allude to--and finally fell soundly
asleep, and so continued till the following morning. On the noon-day
visit, he expressed himself free from headache or any other unpleasant
sequel, and begged hard for a repetition of the medicine, in which he
was indulged for a few days and then discharged.
In several cases of acute and chronic rheumatism admitted about this
time, half-grain doses of the resin were given, with closely analogous
effects; alleviation of pain in most, remarkable increase of appetite
in all, unequivocal aphrodisia, and great mental cheerfulness. In
no one case did these effects proceed to delirium, or was there any
tendency to quarrelling. The disposition developed was uniform in
all, and in none was headache or sickness of stomach a sequel of the
excitement.
_Case of Hydrophobia._
A case now occurred in which the influence of a narcotic, capable
either of cheering or of inducing harmless insensibility, would be
fraught with blessings to the wretched patient.
On the 22nd November, at eight, a.m., a note in English was handed to
me by my servant, entreating my assistance for the Hakim Abdullah, then
at my gate, who had been bitten by a rabid dog three weeks before,
and who feared that the miserable consequences of the bite already
had commenced. I found the poor man in a carriage; he was perfectly
composed, though quite convinced of the desperate nature of his case.
He told me that the evening before, on passing near a tank, he started
in alarm, and since then was unable to swallow liquid. His eye was
restless, suspicious, and wild; his features anxious; his pulse 125;
his skin bedewed with cold moisture; he stated nevertheless that he
wished for food and felt well. A small red and painful cicatrix existed
on the left fore-arm.
He was immediately removed to the hospital, where I accompanied
him. By his own desire water was brought in a metallic vessel,
which he grasped, and brought near his lips; never can I forget the
indescribable horrors of the paroxysm which ensued. It abated in
about three minutes, and morbid thirst still goading the unhappy
man, he besought his servant to apply a moistened cloth to his lips.
Intelligent and brave, he determinately awaited the contact of the
cloth, and for a few seconds, though in appalling agony, permitted some
drops to trickle on his tongue; but then ensued a second struggle,
which, with a due share of the callousness of my profession, I could
not stand by to contemplate.
Two grains of hemp resin in a soft pillular mass were ordered every
hour; after the third dose, he stated that he felt commencing
intoxication; he now chatted cheerfully on his case, and displayed
great intelligence and experience in the treatment of the very disease
with which he was visited. He talked calmly of drinking, but said it
was in vain to try--but he could suck an orange; this was brought to
him, and he succeeded in swallowing the juice without any difficulty.
The hemp was continued till the sixth dose, when he fell asleep and had
some hours’ rest. Early the ensuing morning, however, Mr. Siddons, my
assistant, was called up to him, and found him in a state of tumultuous
agony and excitement; tortured by thirst he attempted to drink; but I
will spare the reader the details of the horrors which ensued.
The hemp was again repeated; and again, by the third dose, the cheering
alleviation of the previous day was witnessed. He ate a piece of
sugar-cane, and again swallowed the juice; he partook freely of some
moistened rice, and permitted a purgative enema to be administered;
his pulse was nearly natural; the skin natural in every respect; his
countenance was happy. On _one_ subject only was he incoherent, and
even here was manifested the powerful and peculiar influence of the
narcotic. He spoke in raptures of the ladies of his _zenana_, and his
anxiety to be with them. We ascertained, however, that he had no such
establishment.
Four days thus passed away, the doses of hemp being continued. When he
fell asleep, on waking the paroxysms returned, but were again almost
immediately assuaged as at first. Meanwhile, purgative enemata were
employed, and he partook freely of solid food, and once drank water
without the least suffering. But about three, p.m., of the fifth day he
sunk into a profound stupor, the breathing slightly stertorous; in this
state he continued, and without further struggle death terminated his
sufferings at four, a.m., on the 27th of November.
Reviewing the preceding summary of this interesting case, it seems
evident that at least one advantage was gained from the use of the
remedy--the awful malady was stripped of its horrors; if not less fatal
than before, it was reduced to less than the scale of suffering which
precedes death from most ordinary diseases. It must be remembered,
too, that in this, the first case ever so treated, I possessed no data
to guide me as to the dose or manner of administration of the drug.
The remarkable cases of tetanus detailed in the sequel throw light
on these important points, and will lead, in future cases, to the
unhesitating administration of much larger quantities than at first I
ventured to employ. I am not, however, rash enough to indulge the hope
which involuntarily forces itself upon me, that we will ever from this
narcotic derive an effectual remedy for even a solitary case of this
disease; but next to cure, the physician will perhaps esteem the means
which enable him “to strew the path to the tomb with flowers,” and to
divest of its _specific_ terrors the most dreadful malady to which
mankind is exposed.
While the preceding case was under treatment, and exciting the utmost
interest in the school, several pupils commenced experiments on
themselves to ascertain the effects of the drug. In all, the state of
the pulse was noted before taking a dose, and subsequently the effects
were observed by two pupils of much intelligence. The result of several
trials was, that in as small doses as a quarter of a grain the pulse
was increased in fulness and frequency; the surface of the body glowed;
the appetite became extraordinary; vivid ideas crowded the mind;
unusual loquacity occurred; and, with scarcely any exception, great
aphrodisia was experienced.
In one pupil, Dinonath Dhur, a retiring lad of excellent habits, ten
drops of the tincture, equal to a quarter of a grain of the resin,
induced in twenty minutes the most amusing effects I ever witnessed.
A shout of laughter ushered in the symptoms, and a transitory state
of cataleptic rigidity occurred for two or three minutes. Summoned
to witness the effects, we found him enacting the part of a Rajah
giving orders to his courtiers; he could recognise none of his fellow
students or acquaintances; all to his mind seemed as altered as his own
condition; he spoke of many years having passed since his student’s
days; described his teachers and friends with a piquancy which a
dramatist would envy; detailed the adventures of an imaginary series
of years, his travels, his attainment of wealth and power; he entered
on discussions on religious, scientific, and political topics, with
astonishing eloquence, and disclosed an extent of knowledge, reading,
and a ready apposite wit, which those who knew him best were altogether
unprepared for. For three hours and upwards he maintained the character
he at first assumed, and with a degree of ease and dignity perfectly
becoming his high situation. A scene more interesting it would be
difficult to imagine. It terminated nearly as suddenly as it commenced,
and no headache, sickness, or other unpleasant symptom followed the
innocent excess.
In the symptoms above described we are unavoidably led to trace a close
resemblance to the effects produced by the reputed inspiration of the
Delphic oracles; perhaps it would not be very erroneous to conclude
that it was referable to the same kind of excitement.
_Use in Cholera._