INDIAIT CANJiTABIS 391 



recommended.* Hyoseine has not been employed to any 

 extent in veterinary practice. It is used in human medicine 

 as a hypnotic and sedative in mania and delirium of the 

 insane. It causes no unpleasant after-effects. 



Cannabis Indica. Indian Cannabis. (U. S. & B. P.) 



The flowering tops of the female plant of the Cannabis 

 sativa Linne (nat. ord. urticac'ese), grown in the East Indies. 



Synonym. — Indian hemp, E. ; chanvre indien, Fr. ; in- 

 discher hanf, G. ; herba cannabis indic£e, P. G. 



Haschisch is a confection of the drug. Arabian habi- 

 tues of this preparation are frequently impelled by its in- 

 fluence to deeds of violence. They are called " hascha- 

 schins " ; hence the English, assassins. Gunjab, or ganga, is 

 the dried plant used in India for smoking. Churrus is the 

 resin and epidermis scraped off the leaves. Bhang consists 

 of the young leaves, flowering and fruiting tops and resin 

 resulting from the first season's growth. 



Habitat. — The official cannabis is indigenous to Asia, 

 but the common hemp plant (Cannabis sativa) grows in 

 America and many other parts of the world. 



Description. — Branching, compressed, brittle, about 5 

 cm. or more long, with a few digitate leaves, having linear- 

 lanceolate leaflets, and numerous, sheathing, pointed bracts, 

 each containing two small pistillate flowers, sometimes with 

 the nearly ripe fruit; the whole more or less agglutinated 

 with a resinous exudation. It has a brownish-green color, 

 a peculiar narcotic odor and a slightly acrid taste. 



Incompatibility. — Water precipitates the active resinous 

 principles. Lemon juice and other vegetable acids are the 

 most efficient antidotes. 



* Scopolamine is ideutical with hyoscin© and-is so named because obtained from 

 Scopola atrvpoides. Scopolamine, or hyoseine, with morphine under the skin (after 

 Korff ) have been employed to some extent as general anaesthetics in human surgery 

 to replace ether or chloroform. Hyoseine (or scopolamine) is sometimes given to 

 horses to aid the action of chloroform and prevent its excitement. One hour before 

 operation gr. 1-6 to 1-3 may be injected under the skin for this purpose. To produce 

 general anaesthesia in dogs, morphine is given with hyoseine in 2 doses— one 2 hours, 

 and the other 15 minutes, before operation. Thus morphine, gr. ss., with hyoseine 

 gr. 1-100, are injected subcutaneously for this purpose and will generally sui^ce for 

 the performance of ordinary operations — although a f^w whiffs of ether may be 

 required in addition. Dogs are comparatively insusceptible to scopolamine. It has 

 been estimated by Bernardini that morphine may be given to the extent of gr. 1-6 to 

 each 2.2 lbs. of live weight ; and hyoseine from gr. 1-120 to gr. 1-15 to each 2.2 lbs. live 

 weight for dogs. 



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