226 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XII.
which is seen to produce
such symptoms should be readily accepted by the popu-
lar mind as a cause of insanity.
This popular idea has
been greatly strengthened by the attitude taken up by
Asylum Superintendents. They have known nothing of the effects of
the drugs at
all, though the consumption is so extensive, except that cases of
insanity have been
brought to them attributed with apparent authority to hemp drugs.
They have
generalised from this limited and one-sided experience. They have
concluded that
hemp drugs produce insanity in every case, or in the great majority
of the cases, of
consumption. They have had no idea that in the vast majority of
cases this result
does not follow the use. They have accordingly without sufficient
inquiry assisted
by the statistics they have supplied and by the opinions they have
expressed
in stereotyping the popular opinion and giving it authority and
permanence.
All this mass of popular and medical opinion demanded careful
examination.
The Commission have set themselves to take evidence from lay
witnesses and
to sift as far as possible the cases mentioned so as to ascertain
the basis of
the popular view. They have also examined medical men of all
classes as to
cases of the alleged connection between hemp drugs and insanity
which have
come before them in their practice, and have cross-examined them
carefully in
regard to these cases so as to see whether the grounds for the
opinion formed in
each case are adequate. Finally, they have very carefully
considered the
asylum statistics, and specially enquired into a large number of
asylum cases.
It has become apparent in the course of the inquiry that no
satisfactory conclu-
sion can be based on the individual cases reported by witnesses. As
a rule, it
is made manifest at once by cross-examination that the history of
the patient
has not formed the subject of careful inquiry; that the opinion is
based on most
inadequate data; and that little or no importance has been attached
to the
question of causation. The Commission have therefore been compelled
to fall
back on the asylums. This course seems clearly expedient on two
grounds—
firstly, that the asylum statistics and asylum experience have
formed the
principal basis of the opinion which calls for examination; and,
secondly, that the
asylum cases must form the best material for arriving at a
conclusion. In its
general effects the evidence of witnesses should not be ignored;
but it is impossi-
ble to say precisely what weight ought to be attached to it in
regard to particular
facts; and the main basis of any final conclusion must be the
material supplied
by the asylums which the Commission now go on to
consider.
Difficulty of getting
accurate
information.
514. The facilities which
exist in England for acquiring something like accu-
rate knowledge of the cause of insanity in any par-
ticular case may be confidently regarded as much
greater than those in India.
Yet every work on insanity contains comments
on the difficulty of arriving at the truth and the unsatisfactory
nature of
many of the statements recorded. The most important subject of
inquiry in this
connection is the history of the lunatic's family, so as to
discover what (if any)
hereditary predisposition to insanity there may exist. Regarding
this, Dr.
Blandford says ("Insanity and its Treatment"): "Statistics on this
subject
are valueless. One author attributes 10 per cent. of cases to this
cause; another
no less than 90. This arises from lack of information on the part
of some
friends and the wilful concealment of others, and also because some
statisticians
seek for insanity only, taking no account of other neuroses, such
as epilepsy