FURTHER ENQUIRIES REGARDING THE ALLEGED HEMP DRUG CASES OF 1892. 119
There is no history of madness in the man's family.
The attack was a short
one; he was only 14 days in the Asylum, but ever since his
discharge he has been seen from time to time and is decidedly
melancholic. The history,
cause, and duration of the case are all very indefinite, and I
think no deductions can be
drawn from it for the purposes of this inquiry. The form of
insanity remains doubtful.
LAHORE; W. COATES, M.D.,
31st January 1894. Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.
Abdus Suttar, a relative
of Mahtab Din, who has been an inmate of the Lunatic
Asylum in 1892, states that the man used to take sharab and charas
two or three months
before the attack of lunacy. One day he took a large quantity of
sharab and also smoked
charas more than usual. The charas affected his brain, and he
became lunatic. He used
force in order to go out. He liked solitude. His father or mother
never had an attack
of lunacy. His parents had to put him in chains for one day. He did
no injury to any-
body nor abused any one; occasionally used to talk at random: never
committed nor
attempted to commit incendiarism. He liked to remain silent.
Deponent cannot say
whether he had a melancholic temper; never refused eating and
drinking. Never
remained naked nor ever been subject to epilepsy; never received
any injury to his head;
only once had an attack of lunacy; never had it afterwards. He is
now in the habit of
keeping his head and eyes downward; has given up the habit of
inhaling charas. He per-
forms his household work as usual. His father never took opium or
any kind of intoxicat-
ing things.
The man (lunatic) still
keeps his eyes fixed downward, and he does not lift his eyes
until required to do so specially.
LAHORE; F. S. JAMALDIN, KHAN BAHADUR,
18th December 1893. Magistrate, 1st class, Lahore District.
4.—Maula Dad, 25 years.
This man was admitted to the Lunatic
Asylum apparently in the last stage of exhaus-
tion from mania and diarrhœa and died a week after
admission.
The only witness that was found to tell
anything of his history stated that he was not
a consumer of bhang, charas, or opium.
There is no proof that he was, and it
is impossible to say what grounds there were for
attributing his insanity to bhang. I cannot even guess what form of
insanity was
present.
LAHORE; W. COATES, M.D.,
31st January 1894. Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.
Report of Tahsildar, Wazirabad, regarding the late lunatic Maula Dad.
Khawajdin, Lambardar of Nalerke, stated that Maula Dad was
never a lunatic; three
years ago he left his village and provided a home for himself with
his father-in-law in Pipli,
a village in Tahsil Daska, District Sialkote. Maula Dad and his
father, Mubarik, were in
the habit of smoking tobacco, but they never used bhang or charas
or opium. They never
suffered from tobacco. The Lambardar stated that no other person
bearing such a name
and parentage than this was a resident of his
village.
5.—Somirgir.
No information could be
got about this case by the Magistrate deputed to inquire.
From the information supplied when he was first sent to the Asylum
and some gleaned
otherwise it seems that he was a religious mendicant and smoked
charas largely.