W. B. O'Shaughnessy

“ I have no hesitation in saying, that in the cases in which the opium treatment is applicable, hemp will be found far more effectual. The changed state of mind it produces is truly wonderful. From the appalling terror which generally predominates, the patient soon passes into a state of cheerfulness, often of boisterous mirth, and soon sinks into a happy sleep. Of course there are many cases in which this, or any other, narcotic should not be employed. ”

“ Since this passage was written in 1838, the tincture of hemp has been used in a great number of cases, both European and native, in the hospital of the Medical College. I know no remedy equal to it as a general and steady stimulant when given to Europeans in half drachm doses during the tractable stage of this disease. I have known the pulse and heat return and the purging checked by a single dose. It allays vomiting much more certainly than the opium preparations, and is not more likely than these to lead to cerebral congestion on the cessation of cholera symptoms. ”

“ The color is dusky green; the odor agreeably narcotic; the whole plant resinous and adhesive to the touch.
The larger leaves and capsules, without the stalks, are called “bang, subjee, or sidhee.” They are used for making an intoxicating drink, for smoking, and in the conserve or confection termed majoon. Bang is cheaper than gunjah, and, though less powerful, is sold at such a low price that for less than a half-penny enough can be purchased to intoxicate an “experienced” person. ”

“ At first we find three drops, or three-twentieths of a grain, causing profound narcotism, subsequently we find 130 drops daily required to produce the same effect. The severity of the symptoms doubtless must be taken chiefly into account in endeavouring to explain this circumstance. It was too soon for habit to gain ascendency over the narcotic powers of the drug. Should the disease ever recur, it will be a matter of much interest to notice the quantity of the tincture requisite to afford relief. ”

“ The hemp was again repeated; and again, by the third dose, the cheering alleviation of the previous day was witnessed. He ate a piece of sugar-cane, and again swallowed the juice; he partook freely of some moistened rice, and permitted a purgative enema to be administered; his pulse was nearly natural; the skin natural in every respect; his countenance was happy. On [Pg 24] one subject only was he incoherent, and even here was manifested the powerful and peculiar influence of the narcotic. ”

“ The preparations of hemp are used for the purpose of intoxication as follows:—
Sidhee, subjee, and bang (synonymous) are used with water as a drink, which is thus prepared. About three tola weight, 540 troy grains, are well washed with cold water, then dried and rubbed to powder, mixed with black pepper, cucumber and melon seeds, sugar, half a pint of milk, and an equal quantity of water. This is considered sufficient to intoxicate an habituated person. Half the quantity is enough for a novice. ”

“ Its effects on man are described as excitant, heating, astringent. It is added that it “destroys phlegm, expels flatulence, induces costiveness, sharpens the memory, increases eloquence, excites the appetite, and acts as a general tonic.”
The “Rajbulubha,” a Sanscrit treatise of rather later date, alludes to the use of hemp in gonorrhœa, and repeats the statements of the “Rajniguntu.” In the Hindu Tantra, a religious treatise, teaching peculiar and mystical formulæ and rites for the worship of the deities, it is said, moreover, that sidhee is more intoxicating than wine. ”

“ The effects differ from those occasioned by the sidhee. Heaviness, laziness, and agreeable reveries ensue, but the person can be readily roused, and is able to discharge routine occupations, such as pulling the punkah, waiting at table, &c.
The majoon, or hemp confection, is a compound of sugar, butter, flour, milk, and sidhee or bang. The process has been repeatedly performed before me by Ameer, the proprietor of a celebrated place of resort for hemp devotees in Calcutta, and who is considered the best artist in his profession. ”

“ In Jessore, I am informed, the drug is produced of excellent quality and to a very considerable extent of cultivation. In Central India, and the Saugor territory, and in Nipal, churrus is collected during the hot season in the following singular manner:—Men clad in leathern dresses run through the hemp fields, brushing through the plant with all possible violence; the soft resin adheres to the leather, and is subsequently scraped off and kneaded into balls, which sell from 10s. ”

“ In the Police Hospital of Calcutta, the late Dr. Bain has used the remedy in three cases of traumatic tetanus, of these one has died and two recovered.
A very remarkable case has recently occurred in the practice [Pg 30] of my cousin, Mr. Richard O’Shaughnessy. The patient was a Jew, aged thirty, attacked with tetanus during the progress of a sloughing sore of the scrotum, the sequel of a neglected hydrocele. Three grain doses were used every second hour with the effect of inducing intoxication and suspending the symptoms. The patient has recovered perfectly, and now enjoys excellent health. ”

“ Many failures must be expected at first, from the salutary caution all good practitioners must observe in the doses of a remedy with which they are not practically familiar. On this point I have further to remark that in a case of traumatic tetanus, now under treatment, fifteen grain doses of the resin have been given every second or third hour, and of these doses five taken before narcotism was induced. ”

“ The contrary qualities of the plant, its stimulant and sedative effects, are prominently dwelt on. “They at first exhilarate the spirits, cause cheerfulness, give color to the complexion, bring on intoxication, excite the imagination into the most rapturous ideas, produce thirst, increase appetite, excite concupiscence. Afterwards the sedative effects begin to preside, the spirits sink, the vision darkens and weakens; and madness, [Pg 14] melancholy, fearfulness, dropsy, and such like distempers, are the sequel—and the seminal secretions dry up. ”

“ Rumphius adds, that the Mahomedáns in his neighbourhood frequently sought for the male plant from his garden, to be given to persons afflicted with virulent gonorrhœa and with asthma, or the affection which is popularly called “stitches in the side.” He tells us, moreover, that the powdered leaves check diarrhœa, are stomachic, cure the malady named pitao, and moderate excessive secretion of bile. He mentions the use of hemp smoke as an enema in strangulated hernia, and of the leaves as an antidote to poisoning by orpiment. ”

“ Doses, &c.—In tetanus a drachm of the tincture every half hour until the paroxysms cease, or catalepsy or narcotism is induced. In hydrophobia I recommend the resin in soft pills, to the extent of ten to twenty grains to be chewed by the patient, and repeated according to the effect. In cholera, thirty drops of the tincture every half hour will be often found to check the vomiting and purging, and bring back warmth to the surface. My experience would here lead me to prefer small doses of the remedy in order to excite rather than narcotise the patient. ”

“ While the preceding case was under treatment, and exciting the utmost interest in the school, several pupils commenced experiments on themselves to ascertain the effects of the drug. In all, the state of the pulse was noted before taking a dose, [Pg 25] and subsequently the effects were observed by two pupils of much intelligence. The result of several trials was, that in as small doses as a quarter of a grain the pulse was increased in fulness and frequency; the surface of the body glowed; the appetite became extraordinary; vivid ideas crowded the mind ”

“ Many physicians, Hahnemann among them, prescribe the vinous extract in various nervous disorders, where opium and hyoscyamus used to be employed, being less heating and devoid of bitterness.” [3]
No information as to the medicinal effects of hemp exists in the standard works on materia medica, to which I have access. Soubeiran, Feé, Merat and de Lens, in their admirable dictionary; Chevalier and Richard, Roques (Phytographie Medicale) ; Ratier and Henry (Pharmacopeé Française) ; and the Dictionnaire des Sciences Medicales, are all equally silent on the subject. ”

“ Haider, the chief of ascetics and self-chasteners, lived in rigid privation on a mountain between Nishabor and Ramah, where he established a monastery of Fakirs. Ten years he had spent in this retreat without leaving it for a moment, till one burning summer’s day when he departed alone to the fields. ”

“ A quarter of a drachm of bangh is given in water as the dose in gonorrhœa. He states, also, that the habitual smokers of gunjah generally die of diseases of the lungs, dropsy, and anasarca, “so do the eaters of majoon and smokers of sidhee, but at a later period. The inexperienced on first taking it are often senseless for a day, some go mad, others are known to die.”
In the 35th chapter of the 5th volume of “Rumphius’ Herbarium Amboinense,” p. 208, Ed. Amsterd. A. D. 1695, we find a long and very good account of the hemp, illustrated by two excellent plates. ”

“ The dried hemp plant, which has flowered and from which the resin has not been removed, is called GUNJAH. It sells for 1s. 6d. to 2s. for 2 lbs. in the Calcutta bazaars, and yields to alcohol [Pg 6] twenty per 100 of resinous extract, composed of the resin (churrus) , and green coloring matter (chlorophylle) . Distilled with a large quantity of water or spirit, traces of essential oil pass over, and the distilled liquor has the powerful narcotic odor of the plant. The gunjah is sold for smoking chiefly. ”

“ Nicholson in consultation, and despairing of a cure from the hemp, it was agreed to intermit its use, to apply a mustard poultice to the epigastrium, and to give a dose of castor oil and turpentine. The child, however, rapidly became worse, and at two, p.m., a tetanic spasm set in, which lasted [Pg 33] without intermission till half-past six, p.m. A cold bath was tried without solution of the spasm; the hemp was, therefore, again resorted to, and a dose of thirty drops, equal to one and a half grains of the resin, given at once. ”

“ This was the case in some experiments made by Dr. Pereira with churrus which I sent him myself. Age and adulteration have been probably both concerned in rendering this substance inactive. But with the alcoholic extract made from the tops in the way I recommend, the practitioner has only to feel his way, and increase the dose till he produces intoxication as the test of the remedy having taken effect.
Of all powerful narcotics it is the safest to use with boldness and decision. ”

“ In persons of a quarrelsome disposition it occasions, as might be expected, an exasperation of their natural tendency. The intoxication lasts about three hours, when sleep supervenes. No nausea or sickness of the stomach succeeds, nor are the bowels at all affected ”

“ Much difference of opinion exists on the question, whether the hemp so abundant 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 latter depend on a resinous secretion with which it abounds, and which seems totally absent in the European kind. The closest physical resemblance or even identity exists between both plants ”

“ On the 26th December spasms set in, and recurred at intervals of a few minutes; the muscles of the abdomen, neck, and jaws became firmly and permanently contracted. Large doses of opium with calomel having been administered for some hours, without the least alleviation of symptoms, and his case having on consultation been pronounced completely hopeless, I obtained Mr. Egerton’s permission to subject the poor man to the trial of the hemp resin. Two grains were first given at half past two, p.m., dissolved in a little spirit. In half an hour the patient felt giddy ”

“ Hemp resin in two grain doses every fifth hour.
6. Five, p.m.—Feverish; skin hot; pulse quick; all tetanic symptoms gone; passing mucous and bloody stools. Leeches to abdomen; a starch and opium enema with three grains of acetate of lead every second hour; tepid sponging to the body; hemp omitted.
7. Six, a.m.—Still feverish; stools frequent, mucous; abdomen tender on pressure; no appetite; the ulcer sloughy, ragged, and offensive. Opium and acetate of lead continued; abdomen leeched; sore dressed with water. At noon there was slight rigidity of abdominal muscles. Hemp resumed. ”

“ Symptoms violent on admission. Turpentine and castor oil given repeatedly without effect; on the 16th and 17th, three grains of hemp resin were given at bed-time. On the morning of the 18th she was found in a state of complete catalepsy, and remained so until evening, when she became sensible, and a tetanic paroxysm recurred. Hemp resumed, and continued in two grain doses every fourth hour. She subsequently took a grain twice daily till the 8th of February, when she left the hospital apparently quite well. ”

“ On the 27th, two grains were given every third hour (a purgative enema was also administered, which operated three times) ; the stiffness of the muscles became much less towards evening, but the spasms returned at intervals as before; pulse and skin natural.
[Pg 28]
28. Improved; is lethargic but intelligent; spasms occasionally occur, but at much longer intervals, and in less severity.
29. Dose of hemp increased to three grains every second hour. Symptoms moderating.
30. Much intoxicated; continues to improve. ”