Extract from the evidence of Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Bovill, regarding the Patna Asylum hemp drug cases for 1892.

Taking the cases in the same order as the Commission :

(1) Salick Patick.

I stated this is a doubtful case, as there is insanity in the family. Hemp drugs may have been the exciting cause. The report of a full enquiry conducted. by Babu Bhawani Prasad Neogi and the Civil Surgeon of Saran, states "that the witnesses who were examined, including the mother, uncle, and the next-door neighbours of the lunatic, agree in saying that Salik Patick never consumed ganja, bhang, alcohol, opium, dhatura, or any intoxicating drug whatever. They all attribute the lunacy to fright in a dream."

The Deputy Magistrate supposes that Lakhu Dusadh, the chaukidar who brought the lunatic to the authorities, is responsible for the statement that the lunacy was due to bhang. He has been unable to find Lakhu Dusadh and to take his statement. This is, therefore, a very doubtful case and de. pends on the Descriptive Roll, which gives bhang as the cause, and the statement of the lunatic, which gives ganja as the drug he used. The first entry in the case book is as follows :—" February 18th. On admission incoherent, restless, sleepless ; wanders aimlessly (says he used to smoke ganja)." The Descriptive Roll states : " He was addicted to bhang, which is said to be the cause of his being insane."

(2) Kali Singh.

I stated this was probably a case of insanity due to hemp drugs, at least as the exciting cause, if not more. A full enquiry on the spot held by H. Wheeler, Esq., Sub-Divisional Officer of Biguserai, states that " Kali Singh himself, his relations, and a crowd of villagers testified that he commenced ganja smoking 15 or i6 years ago. He learned it on a pilgrimage from the sadhus."

For some time he only took two chillums a day. About three or four years ago he increased the number to four, and three or four months before his detention he raised the quantity suddenly to six, seven, and eight chillums. His son says : " There was no thickana about it ; he smoked as much as he could lay his hands on. For two or three months before his confinement he was in the village more or less a lunatic, continuing the excessive smoking. No other cause of insanity could be discovered." This seems a good case. He admitted the use of ganja.

(3) Gajadhar Ahir.

I stated : "This seems in all probability to have been a toxic case, and the evidence points specially to ganja as the cause, though the man indulged in liquor also." Moulvie Syed Nasiruddin, Deputy Magistrate, investigated the case in consultation with the Civil Surgeon of Arrah. The report states that " He was of temperate habits and almost a sadhu when he became insane all of a sudden about 6 or 7 years ago (first attack of insanity). He had no cause for grief, jealousy, or misfortune. He had no illness or injury before the insanity began. He fell in company of a sadhu fakir and took to smoking ganja. He smoked for to or 12 days only (smoking 4 or 5 chillums daily), when all at once he took into his head to renounce all worldly affairs and turn a fakir himself. (Note.—He was then mad and was sent to the asylum. He remained insane for about 5 months, and was discharged cured in 8 months.) He took care not to smoke ganja again, and thus abstained for 5 years, after the lapse of which period he could not resist the temptation, and thought he was out of danger of a relapse. He again took to smoking ganja. He had smoked for 4 or 5 days only very moderately, when the relapse came on."
He was admitted to the asylum, and recovered after 7 months. The asylum history does not agree with this report. The man, no doubt, took ganja. On his first admission it is stated that he had taken it for I t or 12 years that is, from boy hood, he being then about twenty-six. The report says he only smoked it for to or 12 days. The report says he remained sane for 5 years after he was discharged. He was back in the asylum within three years and five months of his discharge. I consider this a real case of insanity produced by ganja.

(4) Siba Thakur.

I thought that this was a case of insanity in which hemp drugs formed merely the exciting cause.

The report submitted by the Joint Magistrate of Dharbanga and the Civil Surgeon stated that " He took to thieving at the early age of twelve ; was convicted when about 18 years old. He used to smoke ganja in small quantities ; but he was particularly addicted to women. He never showed signs of madness before he went to Jail the last time ; on the contrary he was a very cunning thief. He must have become mad in Jail."

This man appears to have always been of a wandering, dishonest, and lazy habit and to have lost control of his temper. He was often under restraint in Bhagalpur and Darbhanga Jails, and assaulted a warder in the Darbhanga Jail in November 1891 before his last conviction.

The Descriptive Roll states that probably he was insane when formerly in Jail.

He is still dangerous, violent, destructive, and filthy after 18 months' treatment. I still doubt that this case was entirely caused by hemp. From an early age he seems to have been vicious and uncontrollable.

(5) Maghan Gir.

I stated that the history of this case points to temporary insanity from ganja.
The further report on the case by the Magistrate of Muzaffarpur, which was received on ilth January 1894, quite bears out this opinion. There is no hereditary and no other known cause of insanity. Maghun Gir is a fakir, but has abstained from sexual intercourse all his life. He began to smoke ganja about a month before he became insane. He tried to commit suicide by lying down in front of a train, and 7 or 8 days later entered a railway carriage and broke a pane of glass. For this he was arrested, and, being insane, was sent to the asylum. Report states: " He consumed about the same quantity of ganja, i.e., two or three chillums daily for about a month. He took bhang regularly." Maghan Gir himself says he used to smoke ganja regularly for ten years, sometimes so chillums a day, and that he also took bhang. The only witness examined is the lunatic's brother, he, Maghan Gir, being absent on a pilgrimage.

This appears a case of insanity due to ganja.

(6) Bihari Runiar.

I stated that there was no proof that this case was caused by hemp drugs. The report conducted by the Joint Magistrate and Civil Surgeon of Durbhanga states that " He was addicted to ganja and to drink, but not in excessive quantities. He went to the Sonepore Fair in the best of health. He returned after a stay of 7 to so days completely mad, and after staying a few days at home he disappeared. He was a wrestler." This is most likely a case of insanity caused by ganja.

He, being already a ganja smoker, probably indulged in the vice to excess while at the fair. I hear that wrestlers often take ganja and bhang.

(7) Ram Sarup Das alias Ramcheriter Thakur.

An enquiry was held by Deputy Magistrate, Moulvi Syed Karim, in consultation with the Civil Surgeon of Champaran.

I thought that the insanity was due to ganja, because it is said that the man took ganja and because the symptoms disappeared rapidly. I had no evidence that the man took ganja except the Descriptive Roll. The report states that there is no family history of insanity, and that "he was not addicted to ganja-smoking before or during the time that he was insane or to any other intoxicants, such as alcohol, opium, etc. Owing to certain reverses of fortune, he fell into great pecuniary difficulties and was obliged to sell his trees and mortgage his lands."

"These difficulties exercised a very injurious influence on his mind, and he became seriously ill with fever a year before he turned insane. It is difficult to say why the insanity in the above case was ascribed to ganja-smoking, the result of the enquiries conclusively proving that it had no connection whatever with the use of that drug."

This case appears to have been due to misfortune.

(8) Adit Misr.

I stated that insanity may have been caused by ganja-smoking, but there is no proof whatever that this is the case. He was recorded to have admitted ganja-smoking, and he was a religious beggar. The report made by the same officers as in the last case (No. 6) states that "None of the relatives of Adit Misr could be traced, and consequently no further enquiries could be made in the case."
The result of the more careful enquiry, therefore, is that the cases of Salik Patick and Siba Thakur are very doubtful ; that of Ram Sarup Das is altogether contradicted. The cases of Kali Singh, Gajadhur Ahir, Bihari Runiar, and Maghan Gir appear to be really due to hemp drugs ; and that of Adit Misr has no further light thrown on it by the enquiry, and stands on his own admission and the fact of his being a religious beggar or devotee.