HERBA CANNABIS. 547 



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In a medicinal point of view, there is a wide dissimilarity between 

 hemp grown in India and that produced in Europe, the former being 

 vastly more potent. Yet even in India there is much variation, for, 

 according to Jameson, the plant grown at altitudes of GOOO to 8000 

 feet affords the resin known as Gliaras, which cannot be obtained from 

 that cultivated on the plains.^ 



History — Hemp has been propagated on account of its textile fibre 

 and oily seeds from a remote period. 



The ancient Chinese herbal called Rh-ya, written about the 5th cen- 

 tury B.C., notices the fact that the hemp plant is of two kinds, the one 

 producing seeds, the other flowers only.* In Susruta, Charaka and 

 ofher early works on Hindu medicine, hemp {Fhaiuja) is mentioned 

 as a remedy. Herodotus states that hemp grows in Scythia both 

 wild and cultivated, and that the Thracians made garments from 

 it which can hardly be distinguished from linen. He also describes 

 how the Scythians expose themselves as in Oi bath to the vapour 

 of the seeds thrown on hot coals.^ , j • i 



The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted witli 

 the medicinal powers of hemp, unless indeed the care-destroymg 

 Xj;7rej'0e'9 should, as Royle has supposed, be referred to this plant. 

 According to Stanislas Julien,* anesthetic powers were ascribed by the 

 Chinese to preparations of hemp as early as the commencement ot the 

 3rd century. 



The employment of hemp both medical and dietetic appears to have 

 spread slowly through India and Persia to the Arabians, amongst whoni 

 the plant ^vas used in the early middle ages. The famous heretical sect 

 of Mahomedans, whose murderous deeds struck terror mto the iieaits 

 of the Crusaders during the 11th and 12th centuries, derived their name 

 of Rashishin, or, as it is commonly written, assassivs, from ha^huili tne 

 Arabic for hemp,' which in certain of their rites they used as an in- 

 toxicant.^ In 1 28G of our era, the Sultan of Egypt, Bibars al Bondokdai y 

 prohibited the sale of hashish, the monopoly of which hart oeen 



leased before.' • j i r- "a 



The use of hemp (hhang) in India was particularly noticed by ^at-cia 



de Orta « (1 563), and the plant was subsequently figured ^J f^!^ ^^J ™ 

 clescribed the drug as largely used on the Malabar coast. It ^^uW seem 

 about this time to have been imported into Europe, at least ^^^f'^^^^^ 

 ^>r Berlu in his Treaswry of Drugs, 1690, describes it ^^ l'^'"^/;^^^. 

 Bantam in the East Indies/and ''of an infatuating quality and pu 



'nwious use." „ „.fo.,.un 



■ It was Napoleon's expedition to Egypt that was the means of a.ain 



.yourn, oftU Ayrir. and Ilorilc. Soc. of ^' The "tS;::!^'^?^:^;"^:!:^!^ 

 I'xJm, viii. 167. Norman at Ca^'-f *»':'" ^/^^^.e of toAwA. 



- Bretscbneider, On Chhiese Botanical to ^^^^'^ f *^? "", '^If V/'/r/.s, 1874. 218) 

 ^^orks I^-JO. 5. 10. Part of the Rh-ya Bdlev, {Indus '^ J:;^;!,-;^ ^Uomur.lcPed 



^vas writtcu iu the 1 2th cent. b. c. states that «'« -^^ff Jj" „r some .lays pre- 



4. Chi" hT'^ *"""'''""■ "■ ^''''^ ^"'^ ?io;Ji; bfen mo^e'-or less intoxicated w.th 



■ ; ^^ytes Rendu., xxviii. (1849) 195. _ <^'^"oL',l/^c »f/r"'''^i/e»K>;re.« mr iEm'^^ "• 



Hence the words a^^assui and amxs»- ' ^' fA? ! ' rdinc' to Makrisi. 



»«'-. Weil, however, is of opinion that (^f V-^f ^oriTfe^^^ « dro<,a* e cousa. 



the word a^assin is more probably derived ^ CoUoqmoH dos^mp^l ^ ^(^^ 1872, 



from ,/Wm, a 6i^ggev.~Geschicldc der medianaes da Indm, ea. z 



^hcdifen, iv. (I860) 101. 27. 



