118 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [APP.
The man is still in the
Asylum, and his case is one of mania pure and simple. I
regard him as a patient that is most unlikely to recover. I am
inclined to call the case
one of heredity.
LAHORE; W. COATES, M,D.,
The 31st January 1894. Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.
From enquiries the
following facts relating to past history of Mana Singh, son
of
Golab Singh, of village Dhotian, Thana Sirhali, were obtained from
Sunder Singh, son of
Khuta Singh, and Lal Singh, son of Buta Singh, and Sarup Singh, son
of Ram Singh.
Lal Singh's father and Mana Singh's father were cousins from the
father's side, and
Sarup Singh is head Lambardar of Mana Singh's village. The latter
also is distantly
related to Mana Singh and has known Mana Singh from
infancy.
Sunder Singh's father was
brother to Mana Singh's father, and his mother was sister
to Mana Singh's mother. He and the others affirm that none of his
relatives, as far as
his recollection carries him back, were ever of unsound mind or
touched in the head in
any way. He and the others affirm that they were children together
with Mana Singh,
and grew up together to manhood in the same village. They did not
notice any pecu-
liarity in Mana Singh's manner during boyhood, nor was he excitable
or given to out-
bursts of temper.
He was noticed
particularly to be of a mild quiet and timid disposition. His mind
up
to enlisting in the 29th Punjab Infantry, 15 years ago, was
perfectly sound. His father
was Subadar in the 29th Punjab Infantry. He went with his regiment
under his father
to the Afghan War in 1878 and returned to Agra in 1880. While in
service he became
insane and was treated regimentally. A short while after he
recovered his sanity and
continued well till his return to Agra, when he obtained leave for
three months. A few
days after his return to his home he became raving mad, for which
he was treated by a
hakim. Three weeks after he broke loose from confinement and joined
a fakir's establish-
ment at Tallagung. It seems his regiment was stationed at Tallagung
before going on
service in 1878, where Mana Singh became acquainted with this
fakir, and at that time
his father, who was a Subadar in the regiment, noticed that Mana
Singh was going to the
bad, and had taken to bhang drinking at the fakir's
place.
The father always
ascribed his son's altered manner and attacks of temporary
un-
soundness of mind to indulgence in bhang drinking. He was two years
in service, where
he could not indulge so freely or so often in bhang, and only
suffered once from unsound-
ness of mind. On his return to India in 1880 he took to bhang
drinking again, and on
his return to his village on leave in 1880 he indulged in it pretty
freely, and was a con-
stant visitor at the different fakir's houses in his own village
and in the villages round
about, where he freely indulged in bhang drinking. A month after
his return home he
became insane, and has remained so ever since. Neither his father
nor any of his relatives
have ever indulged in Cannabis indica (bhang).
BHUGWAN DAS,
Magistrate, 1st class, Amritsar District.
T. R. MULRONEY,
Surgeon-Major, Civil Surgeon, Amritsar.
3.�Mahtab Din.
It appears from the
statement of the only relative of this man that could be
found
that his lunacy was caused by indulgence in both alcohol and hemp
(bhang), and that
these were only used two or three months before the attack of
lunacy came on. The
information is indefinite, and it is impossible to say what share
in the production of insanity
should be attributed to each
drug.