ON GUNJAH, OR INDIAN HEMP. 
253 
long filiform glandular stigmas; achenium ovate, one-seeded. 
The fibres of the stems are long and extremely tenacious, so 
as to afford the best tissue for cordage. The seed is sim- 
ply albuminous and oily, without narcotic properties. 
For the knowledge we possess of this active remedy we 
are indebted to the interesting contributions of Dr. W. B. 
O'Shaughnessy, to the London " Provincial Medical 
Journal." To him is due the credit of introducing it to 
the medical public as a valuable therapeutic agent. 
The narcotic effects of hemp are popularly known in the 
South of Africa, South America, Turkey, Egypt, Asia 
Minor, India, and the adjacent territories of the Malays, 
Burmese and Siamese. In all these countries hemp is used 
in various forms by the dissipated and depraved, as the 
ready agent of a pleasing intoxication. As the popular 
medicine of these nations it is employed in a multitude of 
affections. But in Western Europe its use as a stimulant 
or as a remedy, are alike unknown. Much difference of 
opinion exists on the question, whether the hemp, so abun- 
dant in Europe, even in high northern latitudes, is identical 
in specific characters with the hemp of Asia Minor, and 
India. The extraordinary symptoms produced by the lat- 
ter, depend on a resinous secretion with which it abounds 
and which seems totally absent in the European kind. The 
closest physical resemblance exists between both plants ; 
difference of climate seems more than sufficient to account 
for the absence of the resinous secretion and consequent 
want of narcotic power in that indigenous in colder coun- 
tries. The Indian Hemp of the United States, Jlpocinum 
cannabinum, bears no resemblance to the hemp of India, 
and should not be confounded with it. 
Physical and Chemical Properties. — In certain seasons 
and in warm countries, a resinous juice exudes or concretes 
on the leaves, slender stems and flowers. Separate and in 
masses it constitutes the churrus of Nipal and Hindostan 
vol. ix. — no. iv. 
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