ITS HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 327 



dried, powdered, and, mixed with some favourite aro- 

 matic, are infused in water, their narcotic qualities exert- 

 ing a peculiar and powerful action upon the nervous 

 system, the effect produced being said to be similar to 

 that ecstatic feeling produced by the action of opium. 

 The dried leaves are also mixed with tobacco, and used 

 for smoking. 



The plant being an annual, and not cultivated for 

 the sake of substances which, like starch or sugar, 

 generally demand a long season for their production, 

 is perfectly adapted to this climate, Lindley tells us, 

 notwithstanding its eastern origin. All that it is 

 required to do here is to grow freely and to form an 

 abundance of stems, from which the natural fibre can be 

 extracted ; and the ordinary climate of the summers of 

 Great Britain is quite sufficient to secure this. But we 

 look . in vain in English-grown hemp for the narcotic, 

 stimulating, and intoxicating properties which are so 

 marked in the same plant grown in Syria and in India. 

 In those countries, as the plant approaches maturity, a 

 resinous secretion, having a heavy, unpleasant odour, 

 issues from the hairy stomata of the stems and leaves. 

 In this secretion resides a powerful narcotic principle, 

 analogous in its effects to that of " nicotine/' the active 

 principle of tobacco. This resin exudes in India from the 

 leaves, flowers, and slender branches of the plant. When 

 collected into masses, it forms the churras or cherris of 

 Nepal. Its odour is fragrant and narcotic ; its taste 

 slightly warm, bitter, and acrid. 1 Linnaeus speaks of its 

 " vis narcotica, phantastica, dementius, anodyna, et 

 repellens." The Turks employ it under the names of 

 hadschy and malach. The Arabs are acquainted with 

 its properties, and name it hashish. The Brazilian 

 savages delight in its use. Even the Hottentots use it to 



1 Pharmac. Jour., vol. i. p. 489. 



