678 



HEMP. 



found beneficial ; the foot! should not be too stimu- 

 lating or nutritious. Travelling, or an active life, 

 should succeed to sedentary habits. The constipa- 

 tion, with which the subjects of this disease are liable 

 to be affected, should be remedied by laxatives or 

 gentle purgatives. If bathing is used, it should be 

 in lukewarm or cold water. Any thing whicli may 

 be productive of a local heat, should be avoided; as 

 warm seats, soft beds, too much sleep. If the pain 

 is considerable, recourse should be had to sedatives, 



Sentle bleeding, leeches. If the disease appears un- 

 er a more severe form, more violent remedies will 

 become necessary. If the sanguineous fluxion be- 

 comes excessive, particular care must be paid to re- 

 gulate it. If the tumours acquire a considerable 

 volume, surgical operations may become necessary. 

 If any bad consequences result from the suppression 

 of the hemorrhoids, care must be taken to give the 

 blood the salutary direction which it had previously ; 

 this may be effected by the use of laxative baths, 

 emolient fomentations, the application of leeches to 

 the anus. 



HEMP (cannabis sativa) ; a plant belonging to 

 the same family with the hop and nettle, extensively 

 cultivated, and important on account of the various 

 uses of its seed and the fibres of its bark. Poultry 

 and small birds are very fond of the former, and it 

 furnishes an expressed oil, very good for burning, 

 and also employed by painters ; the latter is made 

 intocofdage, ropes, cables, and cloth of every quality, 

 from that used for the sails of vessels to the fineness 

 of linen. The stem is herbaceous, upright, simple, 

 slightly pilose, attaining the height of four to six 

 feet ; the leaves opposite on foot-stalks, divided into 

 five lanceolate and coarsely serrate leaflets; the male 

 flowers, which are on separate stems, are green, re- 

 sembling those of the hop, and consist of a five-leafed 

 perianth and five stamens; the female flowers are 

 inconspicuous, and the fruit is a little, hard, bivalve 

 capsule, containing a single seed. The plant is 

 annual, and possesses a strong odour, with intoxica- 

 ting and narcotic properties, on which account it is 

 usual, in India and other Eastern countries, to mix 

 the leaves with tobacco for smoking. It is a native 

 of India and Persia, and was transported into Europe, 

 where it is now cultivated successfully, even in the 

 northern parts. In America, the hemp has become 

 naturalized in many places, and is common in waste 

 places, along road sides, &c. 



It appears that although this plant was known to 

 the ancients, yet they were unacquainted with the 

 method of preparing its threads ; lint or flax only 

 having been so used. The quantity of hemp used 

 in Great Britain is prodigious. The sails and cord- 

 age of a ship of war, of the first-rate, require 180,000 

 Ibs. of rough hemp for their construction, and it is 

 computed thstt it takes five acres of land to produce 

 one ton of hemp. Only the coarser kinds of hemp 

 are employed in making cordage, the finer sorts 

 being used for linen, which although always coarser 

 than that made from flax is yet incomparably stronger 

 and equally susceptible of being bleached, both by 

 the old and new processes. Hempen linen also 

 improves in colour by wearing, whilst that from flax 

 decays. The prices of hempen linen varies from 

 tenpence to four shillings and sixpence per yard : 

 and the finer kinds are sometimes preferred on ac- 

 count of their warmth and strength. The hemp of 

 England is much superior to foreign, and that grown 

 in Suffolk is never used in making cordage, being too 

 fine. The hemp plant is said to possess the remarkable 

 property of driving away almost all insects that feed 

 upon other vegetables, wherefore the farmers on the 

 continent sometimes sow a belt of it round their fields 

 when they are very anxious to preserve their crops. 



In order to encourage the growth of British hemp- 

 government, in 1787, granted a bounty of threepence 

 per stone on all hemp grown at home. The usual 

 height of the plant when growing is from five to six 

 feet. But this varies much, for that grown in 

 Alsace sometimes exceeds twelve feet in height, and 

 is upwards of three inches in circumference, the 

 stalks being so deeply rooted that a very strong man 

 can scarcely pull them up. In Catalonia, the plants 

 attain a height of seven feet. In Italy, hemp is 

 generally cultivated, particularly near Milan and 

 Bologna. It is there sown upon the best land, com- 

 posed of rich strong loams, and is manured wit! 

 dung, rotten cloth, feathers, and horns brought fron 

 Dalmatia. When hemp is grown upon poor land, it 

 is finer in quality but smaller in quantity than that 

 grown on a rich soil. It may be raised for many 

 years successively on the same fields, provided they 

 be well manured. An acre produces on an average 

 thirty-six or thirty-eight stone of hemp, and the sea- 

 son for sowing it extends from 25th March to the 

 15th June. The seed must be sown thin, not more 

 than two bushels to an acre, and if put in with a 

 drill plough, a still smaller quantity will suffice. As 

 the plants are either female or male, and the former 

 only can produce seed, regard must be had to this 

 circumstance in gathering in the harvest. For this 

 purpose small paths are to be left open along the 

 field lengthwise, at about seven feet distant from eacl 

 other, to allow a person to pluck the male plant 

 first, as the female require to remain standing a 

 month longer to admit of the seed becoming fully 

 ripe. The male hemp is known to be ripe by the 

 falling of the flowers, and falling of the pollen, and 

 from some of the stems growing yellow. The female 

 plants are always less numerous than the male, and 

 are known to be ripe by the stems becoming pale. 

 It is advisable always to pull hemp rather under than 

 over ripe. 



The male hemp being stripped of its leaves, and 

 dried in the atmosphere, may be stored up, or else it 

 may be carried immediately to the ponds to be steep- 

 ed, but there is an advantage attending the steeping 

 it green, as it turns out of a better colour. The 

 plants intended to raise good seed for sowing are 

 generally sowed apart by themselves. 



When the hemp is pulled, it must be taken in 

 large handfulls, and the roots cut off; and the leaves, 

 seeds, and lateral branches stripped off by means of 

 a wooden sword or ripple. It is then made into 

 bundles of twelve handfuls each, in order to be 

 steeped in water. In Suffolk they usually steep it 

 for four, five, or six days, preferring standing water, 

 and the same water may be used three times during 

 one season ; but the first steeped has the best colour. 

 The bundles are to be laid crosswise over each other, 

 and care is to be taken in withdrawing them, so as 

 not to intermingle them. It is better to let the 

 hemp remain a proper time, and eleven days is 

 sometimes necessary for this purpose. The slender- 

 est hemp requires the longest steeping, and the 

 operation is known to be completed by the inner 

 reed separating easily from the fibres of the outer 

 bark. When thoroughly steeped, the next operation 

 is called reeding, and is performed either in a 

 trough under water, or upon a table : the bundles 

 being pressed down by weights at the upper end, 

 while it is going on. After the hemp has been 

 reeded, it must be freed from the mucilaginous 

 matter with which it abounds, and this is done by 

 pouring water repeatedly through it, and afterwards 

 squeezing it out very carefully, so as not to intermix 

 or entangle the threads. A little soft soap (in the 

 proportion of an ounce to three pounds of dry hemp,) 

 has been sometimes added to the last portions of 



