548 CANNABINE^. 



calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts of 

 De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the Indian 

 drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and is chieH}^ 

 due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O'Shaughnessy in 1838-39.* 

 Although the astonishing effects produced in India by the administra- 

 tion of preparations of hemp are seldom witnessed in the cooler climate 

 of Britain, the powers of the drug are sufficiently manifest to give it an 

 established place in the pharmacopoeia. 



Production— Though hemp is grown in many parts of India, yet 

 as a drug it is chiefly produced in a limited area in the districts of 

 Bogra and Eajshahi, north of Calcutta, where the plant is cultivated for 

 the purpose in a systematic manner. The retail sale, like that of opium 

 and spirits, is restricted by a license, which in 1871-2 produced to the 

 Government of Bengal about £120,000, while, upon opium (chiefly con- 

 sumed in Assam) the amount raised was £310,000/^ Bhang is one of 

 the principal commodities imported into India from Turkestan. 



Description— The leaves of hemp have long stalks with small 

 stipules at their bases, and are composed of 5 to 7 lanceolate-acuminate 

 leaflets, shai-ply serrate at the margin. The loose panicles of male 

 flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, are produced on separate 

 plants, from the axils of the leaves. The fruits, called Hemp-seeds, are 

 small grey nuts or achenes, each containing a single oily seed. In 

 common with other plants of the order, hemp abounds in sihca which 

 gives a roughness to its leaves and stems. In European medicine, the 

 only hemp employed is that grown in India, which occurs in two prin- 

 cipal forms, namely: — 



1. Bhang, SiddM or Sabzi (Hindustani) ; Hashish or Qmiaq 

 (Arabic). This consists of the dried leaves and small stalks, which are 

 of a dark green colour, coarsely broken, and mixed with here and there 



a few fruits, 

 any taste. In 



It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely 



„-^ ^„ India, it is smoked either with or without tobacco, but 



more commonly it is made up with flour and various additions into a. 

 sweetmeat or majunj' of a green colour. Another form of taking it is 

 that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves m co 



water. 



dru^ 



Q innah 



plant, and consist in some samples of straight, stiff, woody stems so _^^ 

 inches long, surrounded by the upward branching flower-stalKS ; ^ 

 others of more succulent and much shorter shoots, 2 to 3 inches lo ^^ 

 and of less regular form. In either case, the shoots have a ^omF^^^^^ 

 and glutinous appearance, are very brittle, and of a browmsh-g 



taste 



1S35)- 



is said that after the leaves which constitute bha7ir/ have been gatl 



^ For a notice of them, see 'Shaughnessy, Hauf, by Dr. G. Martius (E^'^'J^ l^"' 



On the preparation of the Indian Jlpmp ^ Blue Book (inoteil at p- &-' "" , ^jgc. 



or Gunjah, Calcutta, 1839 ; also Bea<ial » Magi-oun is the Persian name ^^^^^^ 



Di'^pensatory, Calcutta, 1842. 579 (504. tuaries, of wliioh more than /u ar ^^^^-^^ 



An immenae number of references to for instance, in the ^/'«''»"^^''^, .„ 32I. 



writers who have touched on the medicinal (see Appendix, Augelus), p- -^^^ jj, but 



properties of hemp, will be found in the * This name is not used m in 



elaborate essay entitled Studien iiber den seems to be a corruption of ga'^J^- 



