148 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [APP.
the use of ganja or
bhang. It is stated by the lunatic's wife that he was
occasionally
using liquor.
5. On the 27th
February 1894 Ramatanie Pillay, Abkari Contractor, who knew
the
lunatic for the last 15 years, was examined. He states that in his
opinion the cause of
Mahadil's lunacy is his misfortune and contracted circumstances
rather than to ganja
smoking, as he was not addicted to that habit to the best of his
knowledge and belief.
6. Gopala Tunei
Nayudu, Head Clerk of the District Jail, speaks to an
admission
made by the lunatic when he was in Jail to the effect that he used
ganja freely, and says
that he learnt from his neighbours at Canel Bazar that he was
addicted to that drug.
His evidence is hearsay, and the lunatic's admission cannot be
relied upon as it is sup-
posed to have been made when he was an insane in the
Jail.
7. Five more
persons who personally knew the lunatic were examined by me
at
Canel Bazar, whose evidence goes for the most part in corroboration
of that recorded from
the relatives of the lunatic. It seems to be clear that Mahadil
Saheb was not addicted to
ganja smoking and that the cause of his insanity has not been
clearly established.]
13. Coopen.—His
nephew says he lived by begging, and about two or three years
ago
he began smoking ganja and eating majum. He also stated that "he
also used to drink
toddy and arrack." The police report corroborates the above, but
his brother states it
was some four or five years ago that he took to ganja.
[Note.—The
brother's statement is as follows: "It is only two or three years
ago
Coopen became mad. He got into the habit of smoking-ganja and
eating majum. He also
used to drink toddy and arrack. His first symptoms of madness were
fits **. When he
got these fits he used to fall down, and he used to foam at the
mouth. The fits used
to last only for a very short time. Afterwards he used to become
violent. In this state he
would continue for four or five days and then he would recover; and
the same sort of fits
and madness used to repeat itself on almost every new-moon
day."]
14. Tadiya.—No
additional information obtained. Supposed to be a man down
from
the Central Provinces.
15. Dona Papada.—No additional information obtained.
16. & 17.—Reply not received.
(Sd.) J. W. EVANS, Surgeon-Major,
Acting
Superintendent,
Government Lunatic Asylum.
OOTACAMUND;
October 6th,
1893.
I think it better to wait
till I reach Madras (October 10th) before sending in remarks
on your list of hemp drugs cases in the Madras Lunatic
Asylum.
* Of insanity.
To begin with, I must
assure myself that the cause * has been entered in my
own
handwriting. The statements
of medical officers, medi-
cal subordinates, and magistrates as to cause are usually
untrustworthy, and are generally second-hand, from relations, who
will say, for example,
that the new moon is a cause—I believe the Western belief is the
full moon. My own ex-
perience in the Asylum was that I had to discard as much as
possible the cause assigned
in the admission papers, and to try and find out for myself, and to
put down the cause only
when I felt I had reasonable cause for so doing.