548 CANNABINEiE. 



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 chiefly 

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

 Although the astonishing effects pi-oduced 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 Rajshahi, 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, sharply 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 silica 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, Siddhl or Sabzl (Hindustani) ; Hashish or Qinnaq 

 (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. It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely 

 any taste. In 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 majun^ of a green colour. Another form of taking it is 

 that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves in cold 

 water. 



2. (rfoy a (Hindustani) ; Qinnab {Axahic); Giuiza^ of the London 

 drug-brokers. These are the flowering or fruiting shoots of the female 

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

 inches long, surrounded by the upward branching flower-stalks ; in 

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

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

 and glutinous appearance, are very brittle, and of a brownish-green 

 hue. In odour and in the absence of taste ganja resembles hhaiig. It 

 is said that after the leaves which constitute bhang have been gathered, 



' For a notice of them, see O'Shaughnessy, Hanf, by Dr. G. Martins (Erlangen, 1855). 



On the preparation of the Indian Hemp '^ Blue Book quoted at p. 52, note 1. 



or Gunjah, Calcutta, 1839 ; also Ben<ial ^ Magi-oun is the Persian name for elec- 



DUpensatory, Calcutta, 1842. 579-604. tuaries, of which more than 70 are found, 



An immense number of references to for instance, in the Pharmacop(eia Pemica 



writers who have touched on the medicinal (see Appendix, Angelus), p. 291 to 321. 



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



elaborate essay entitled Studien iiber den seems to be a corruption of ganja. 



