328 On the Extract of Gunjah or Indian Hemp, 



quite different from the effects they obtained from extracts 

 made in this country from the dried herb." From this it 

 appears that the reputed virtues of this substance are there 

 considered to be rather apocryphal. 



A fair trial of this medicine, and an impartial scientific 

 report on it by highly qualified persons, may, however, be 

 soon expected from Paris and Berlin, as Dr. Mouat, a con- 

 siderable time ago, sent a large quantity of it, prepared by 

 this process, to both of these places. 



It is to be regretted that any circumstance should have pre- 

 vented an extended trial of it from being made in Edinburgh, 

 as, in one case, in which a practitioner was prevailed on to try 

 it, its use was attended with decided benefit to the patient, 

 though also with its singular effect upon the imagination. I 

 give the passage entire in which this is described in a letter 

 from two most intelligent druggists and chemists of Edin- 

 burgh, well known for the many improvements made by them 

 in processes of organic pharmacy. " We were greatly ob- 

 liged by the pot of extract of Indian hemp you sent us, for 

 which accept of our best thanks. It is a beautiful prepara- 

 tion, and from the little experience we have had of it here, 

 it is very powerful. We have only got the report of one 

 medical gentleman, who had an opportunity of trying it on 

 a patient in the hospital, labouring under spasmodic asthma. 

 The hypnotic effect was quite decided in grain doses. After 

 the first dose the man awoke late at night, and described to 

 the house surgeon a dream he had had, in which he supposed 

 himself in heaven, conversing. He was still under the influ- 

 ence of the drug, while he was relating what had passed 

 in his dream, and, although usually a very dull and heavy- 

 headed man, he described the scenes he had seen, and repeated 

 the conversations he had held, in the most glowing and 

 animated language; stating, at the same time, that his own 

 account was far short of the reality. The man, next morning, 

 however, desired the physician not to give him any more 



