Drugs 



DRUGS 



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In the present article an attempt is made to describe some of the more important vegetable 

 products employed by man to alleviate the physical suffering of himself and of the animals 

 which tend to his welfare. Strictly speaking, the term " drugs " includes, all substances 

 belonging to the animal, vegetable, and inorganic kingdoms, which have been so employed, 

 but in the space at our disposal it has been impossible to deal even briefly with any but the 

 most important of those derived from plants. 



Indian Hemp. This important drug is obtained from Cannabis sativa, a plant indigenous 

 to India and Persia, but largely cultivated in temperate parts of the world for the sake of the 

 valuable fibre (hemp) and oil seed (hempseed). When grown in the hot regions of the tropics, 

 the plants (especially the female plants) yield a quantity of resin possessing remarkable intoxi- 

 cating properties, and on this account hemp is largely grown by the natives of India and 

 the East. The drug appears in several forms in the Indian bazaars, the well-known " ganjah 

 being the leafy flowering branches of the plant trodden and pressed by the feet into compact 

 masses ; it is known in the English drug markets as " guaza." Ganjah is smoked like tobacco, 

 but " bhang,"'' prepared from the dried larger leaves which are collected separately, is pounded 

 in water to a pulp and used in the preparation of a drink. The resin itself, to which the 

 intoxicating properties of the drug are due, is known, as " churras " or " char as" and is obtained 

 either by kneading ganjah with the hands, or by causing men, clothed in leather garments, to 

 brush through the living plants as violently as possible, with the result that the resin escapes 

 from the wounded surfaces of the plants and adheres to the leather, from which it is afterwards 

 scraped and rolled into balls. 



In the home market the drug generally occurs as rough, flattened resinous masses composed 

 of the flowering shoots compacted by pressure. It possesses little taste, but has a powerful 

 odour, and is chiefly used for its soothing properties in cases of mania and hysteria. 



Rhubarb. An important source of this valuable drug is probably Rheum officinale, a 

 plant found wild in Eastern Thibet and North-western China, and now cultivated in England 

 and elsewhere. The drug, which has long been known in Europe, consists of the dried rhizome 



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JAVA. GOVERNMENT QUININE PLANTATION 



