1839.] On the preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah. 745 



Majoon, lastly, is described by Dr. Ainslie, page 176, as a preparation 

 of sugar, milk, ghee, poppy seeds, flowers of the datura, powder of 

 nux-vomica, and sugar. The true Majoon however as prepared in 

 Bengal contains neither datura nor nux-vomica. I have already 

 described the process by which it has been manufactured before me. 



In the Journal de Pharmacie, the most complete Magazine in 

 existence on all pharmaceutical subjects, we find Hemp noticed in 

 several volumes. In the Bulletin de Pharmacie t. v. a. 1810, p. 400, we 

 find it briefly described by M. Rouyer, apothecary to Napoleon, and 

 member of the Egyptian scientific commission, in a paper on the po- 

 pular remedies of Egypt. With the leaves and tops, he tells us, collected 

 before ripening, the Egyptians prepare a conserve, which serves as the 

 base of the berch, the diasmouk, and the bernaouy. Hemp leaves re- 

 duced to powder and incorporated with honey or stirred with water 

 constitute the berch of the poor classes. 



The same work also, (Bulletin, vol. i. p. 523, a. 1809,) contains a 



very brief notice on the intoxicating preparations of Hemp, read by 



M. De Sacy before the Institute of France in July, 1809. M. De 



Sacy's subsequent analysis of Makrizi, of which I have given an 



outline, is however much more rich in details than the article in the 



Bulletin. 



(To be continued.) 



Art. VII — Memoir on the Climate, Soil, Produce and Husbandry of 

 Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries. — By Lieut. Irwin. 

 It gives us great pleasure to be the means of rescuing from undeser- 

 ved oblivion, the admirable Memoir on Afghanistan, of which we now 

 present to our readers the first part. The author (then) Lieut. Irwin 

 accompanied Mr. Elphinstone in his Mission to Cabul, and is honorably 

 mentioned in the preface to Mr. E's justly celebrated work. The 

 Memoir we now publish exists in the Library of the Asiatic Society, 

 and was first brought to our notice by Captain Cunningham of the 

 Bengal Engineers. Subsequently Dr. Spry struck by the value of 

 its details on rural economy, proposed its publication to the Agri- 



