book 4

, chap. 74-5.

[2026] _Comptes Rendus_, xxviii. (1849) 195.

[2027] Hence the words _assassin_ and _assassinate_. Weil, however, is of opinion that the word _assassin_ is more probably derived from _sikkin_, a dagger.—_Geschichte der Chalifen_, iv. (1860) 101.

[2028] The miscreant who assassinated Justice Norman at Calcutta, 20 Sept. 1871, is said to have acted under the influence of _hashísh_. Bellew (_Indus to the Tigris_, 1874. 218) states that the Afghan chief who murdered Dr. Forbes in 1842, had for some days previously been more or less intoxicated with _Charas_ or _Bhang_.

[2029] _Quatremère_, _Memoires sur l’Egypte_ ii. (1811) 504, according to Makrisi.

[2030] _Colloquios dos simples e drogas e cousas medicinaes da India_, ed. 2, Lisboa, 1872, 27.

It was Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt that was the means of again calling attention to the peculiar properties of hemp, by the accounts of De Sacy (1809) and Rouger (1810). But the introduction of the Indian drug into European medicine is of still more recent date, and is chiefly due to the experiments made in Calcutta by O’Shaughnessy in 1838-39.[2031] Although the astonishing effects produced in India by the administration of preparations of hemp are seldom witnessed in the cooler climate of Britain, the powers of the drug are sufficiently manifest to give it an established place in the pharmacopœia.

=Production=—Though hemp is grown in many parts of India, yet as a drug it is chiefly produced in a limited area in the districts of Bogra and Rājshāhi, north of Calcutta, where the plant is cultivated for the purpose in a systematic manner. The retail sale, like that of opium and spirits, is restricted by a license, which in 1871-2 produced to the Government of Bengal about £120,000, while upon opium (chiefly consumed in Assam) the amount raised was £310,000.[2032] Bhang is one of the principal commodities imported into India from Turkestan.

=Description=—The leaves of hemp have long stalks with small stipules at their bases, and are composed of 5 to 7 lanceolate-acuminate leaflets, sharply serrate at the margin. The loose panicles of male flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, are produced on separate plants, from the axils of the leaves. The fruits, called _Hemp-seeds_, are small grey nuts or achenes, each containing a single oily seed. In common with other plants of the order, hemp abounds in silica which gives a roughness to its leaves and stems. In European medicine, the only hemp employed is that grown in India, which occurs in two principal forms, namely:—

1. _=Bhang=_, _Siddhī_ or _Sabzī_ (Hindustani); _Hashish_ or _Qinnaq_ (Arabic). This consists of the dried leaves and small stalks, which are of a dark green colour, coarsely broken, and mixed with here and there a few fruits. It has a peculiar but not unpleasant odour, and scarcely any taste. In India, it is smoked either with or without tobacco, but more commonly it is made up with flour and various additions into a sweetmeat or _majun_,[2033] of a green colour. Another form of taking it is that of an infusion, made by immersing the pounded leaves in cold water.

2. _=Ganja=_ (Hindustani); _Qinnab_ (Arabic); _Guaza_[2034] of the London drug-brokers. These are the flowering or fruiting shoots of the female plant, and consist in some samples of straight, stiff, woody stems some inches long, surrounded by the upward branching flower-stalks; in others of more succulent and much shorter shoots, 2 to 3 inches long, and of less regular form. In either case, the shoots have a compressed and glutinous appearance, are very brittle, and of a brownish-green hue. In odour and in the absence of taste _ganja_ resembles _bhang_. It is said that after the leaves which constitute _bhang_ have been gathered, little shoots sprout from the stem, and that these picked off and dried form what is called _ganja_.[2035]

[2031] For a notice of them, see O’Shaughnessy, _On the preparation of the Indian Hemp or Gunjah_, Calcutta, 1839; also _Bengal Dispensatory_, Calcutta, 1842. 579-604. An immense number of references to writers who have touched on the medicinal properties of hemp, will be found in the elaborate essay entitled _Studien über den Hanf_, by Dr. G. Martius (Erlangen, 1855).

[2032] Blue Book quoted at p. 52, note 1.

[2033] Magi-oun is the Persian name for electuaries, of which more than 70 are found, for instance, in the _Pharmacopœia Persica_ (see Appendix, Angelus), p. 291 to 321.

[2034] This name is not used in India, but seems to be a corruption of _ganja_.

[2035] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, i. (1868) 293.

=Chemical Composition=—The most interesting constituents of hemp, from a medical point of view, are the _resin_ and _volatile oil_.

The former was first obtained in a state of comparative purity by T. and H. Smith in 1846.[2036] It is a brown amorphous solid, burning with a bright white flame and leaving no ash. It has a very potent action when taken internally, two-thirds of a grain acting as a powerful narcotic, and one grain producing complete intoxication. From the experiments of Messrs. Smith, it seems to us impossible to doubt that to this resin the energetic effects of cannabis are mainly due.

When water is repeatedly distilled from considerable quantities of hemp, fresh lots of the latter being used for each operation, a volatile oil lighter than water is obtained, together with ammonia. This oil, according to the observations of Personne (1857), is amber-coloured, and has an oppressive hemp-like smell. It sometimes deposits an abundance of small crystals. With due precautions it may be separated into two bodies, the one of which, named by Personne _Cannabene_,[2037] is liquid and colourless, with the formula C₁₈H₂₀; the other, which is called _Hydride of Cannabene_, is a solid, separating from alcohol in platy crystals to which Personne assigns the formula C₁₈H₂₂. He asserts that cannabene has indubitably a physiological action, and even claims it as the sole active principle of hemp. Its vapour he states to produce when breathed a singular sensation of shuddering, a desire of locomotion, followed by prostration and sometimes by syncope.[2038] Bohlig in 1840 observed similar effects from the oil, which he obtained from the fresh herb, just after flowering, to the extent of 0·3 per cent.

It remains to be proved whether an _alkaloid_ is present in hemp, as suggested by Preobraschensky.[2039]

The other constituents of hemp are those commonly occurring in other plants. The leaves yield nearly 20 per cent. of ash.

As to the resin of Indian hemp, Bolas and Francis in treating it with nitric acid, converted it into _Oxycannabin_, C₂₀H₂₀N₂O₇. This interesting substance may, they say, be obtained in large prisms from a solution in methylic alcohol. It melts at 176° C. and then evaporates without decomposition; it is neutral.[2040] One of us (F.) has endeavoured to obtain it from the purified resin of charas, but without success.

[2036] _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1847) 171.

[2037] _Journ. de Pharm._ xxxix. (1857) 48; Canstatt’s _Jahresbericht_ for 1857, i. 28.

[2038] Personne, though he admits the activity of the resin prepared by Smith’s process, contends that it is a mixed body, and that further purification deprives it of all volatile matter and renders it inert. This is not astonishing when one finds that the “purification” was effected by treatment with caustic lime or soda-lime, and exposure to a temperature of 300° C. (572° F.)! That the resin of the Edinburgh chemists does not owe its activity to volatile matter, is proved by their own experiment of exposing a small quantity in a very thin layer to 82° C. for 8 hours: the medicinal action of the resin so treated was found to be unimpaired.

[2039] Dragendorff’s _Jahresbericht_, 1876. 98.

[2040] _Chemical News_, xxiv. (1871) 77.

=Uses=—Hemp is employed as a soporific, anodyne, antispasmodic, and as a nervous stimulant. It is used in the form of alcoholic extract, administered either in a solid or liquid form. In the East it is consumed to an enormous extent by Hindus and Mahomedans, who either smoke it with tobacco, or swallow it in combination with other substances.[2041]

Charas.

No account of hemp as a drug would be complete without some notice of this substance, which is regarded as of great importance by Asiatic nations.

_Charas_ or _Churrus_ is the resin which exudes in minute drops from the yellow glands, with which the plant is provided in increasing number according to the elevated temperature (and altitude?) of the country where it grows. The varieties of hemp richest in resin, at least in the Laos country in the Malayan Peninsula, scarcely attain the height of 3 feet, and show densely curled leaves.[2042] Charas is collected in several ways:—one is by rubbing the tops of the plants in the hands when the seeds are ripe, and scraping from the fingers the adhering resin. Another is thus performed:—men clothed in leather garments walk about among growing hemp, in doing which the resin of the plant attaches itself to the leather, whence it is from time to time scraped off. A third method consists in collecting, with many precautions to avoid its poisonous effects, the dust which is caused when heaps of dry _bhang_ are stirred about.[2043]

By whichever of these processes obtained, charas is of necessity a foul and crude drug, the use of which is properly excluded from civilized medicine. As before remarked (p. 547) it is not obtainable from hemp grown indiscriminately in any situation even in India, but is only to be got from plants produced at a certain elevation on the hills.

The best charas, which is that brought from Yarkand, is a brown, earthy-looking substance, forming compact yet friable, irregular masses of considerable size. Examined under a strong pocket lens, it appears to be made up of minute, transparent grains of brown resin, agglutinated with short hairs of the plant. It has a hemp-like odour, with but little taste even in alcoholic solution. A second and a third quality of Yarkand charas represent the substance in a less pure state. Charas viewed under the microscope exhibits a crystalline structure, due to inorganic matter. It yields from ¼ to ⅓ of its weight of an amorphous resin, which is readily dissolved by bisulphide of carbon or spirit of wine. The resin does not redden litmus, nor is it soluble in caustic potash. It has a dark brown colour, which we have not succeeded in removing by animal charcoal. The residual part of charas yields to water a little chloride of sodium, and consists in large proportion of carbonate of calcium and peroxide of iron. These results have been obtained in examining samples from Yarkand.[2044] Other specimens which we have also examined, have the aspect of a compact dark resin.

Charas is exported from Yarkand[2045] and Kashgar, the first of which places exported during 1867, 1830 _maunds_ (146,400 lb.) to Lê, whence the commodity is carried to the Punjab and Kashmir. Smaller quantities are annually imported from Kandahar and Samarkand;[2046] some charas appears also (1876) to be exported from Mandshuria to China. The drug is mostly consumed by smoking with tobacco; it is not found in European commerce.

[2041] For further information, consult Cooke’s _Seven Sisters of Sleep_, Lond., chap. xv.-xvii; also _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1872. 600.

[2042] Garnier, _Voyage d’Exploration en Indo-Chine_, ii. (1873) 410.

[2043] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, 1868. 293.

[2044] Obtained by Colonel H. Strachey, and now in the Kew Museum. It is by no means evident by what process they were collected.

[2045] Forsyth, _Correspondence on Mission to Yarkand_, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, Feb. 28, 1871; also Henderson and Hume, _Lahore to Yarkand_, Lond. 1873. 334.

[2046] Stewart, _Punjab Plants_, Lahore, 1869. 216.

STROBILI HUMULI.

_Humulus vel Lupulus_; _Hops_; F. _Houblon_; G. _Hopfen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Humulus Lupulus_ L.,—a diœcious perennial plant, producing long annual twining stems which climb freely over trees and bushes. It is found wild, especially in thickets on the banks of rivers, throughout all Europe, from Spain, Sicily and Greece to Scandinavia; and extends also to the Caucasus, the South Caspian region, and through Central and Southern Siberia to the Altai mountains. It has been introduced into North America, Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul), and Australia.

=History=—Hops have been used from a remote period in the brewing of beer, of which they are now regarded as an indispensable ingredient. Hop gardens, under the name _humularia_ or _humuleta_, are mentioned as existing in France and Germany in the 8th and 9th centuries; and Bohemian and Bavarian hops have been known as an esteemed kind since the 11th century. A grant alleged to have been made by William the Conqueror in 1069, of hops and hop-lands in the county of Salop,[2047] would indicate, were it free from doubt, a very early cultivation of the hop in England.

As to the use made of hops in these early times, it would appear that they were regarded in somewhat of a medicinal aspect. In the _Herbarium of Apuleius_,[2048] an English manuscript written about A.D. 1050, it is said of the hop (_hymele_) that its good qualities are such that men put it in their usual drinks; and St. Hildegard,[2049] a century later, states that the hop (_hoppho_) is added to beverages, partly for its wholesome bitterness, and partly because it makes them keep.

Hops for brewing were among the produce which the tenants of the abbey of St. Germain in Paris[2050] had to furnish to the monastery in the beginning of the 9th century; yet in the middle of the 14th century, beer without such addition was still brewed in Paris.

[2047] Blount, _Tenures of Land and Customs of Manors_, edited by Hazlitt, 1874. 165.

[2048] _Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England_, edited by Cockayne, i. (1864) 173; ii. (1865) ix.

[2049] _Opera Omnia_, accurante J. P. Migne, Paris, 1855. 1153.

[2050] Guérard, _Polyptique de l’abbé Irminon_, i. (1844) 714. 896.

The brewsters, bakers and millers of London were the subject of a mandate of Edward I. in A.D. 1298; but there is no reason for inferring that the manufacture of malt liquor at this period involved the use of hops. It is plain indeed that somewhat later, hops were _not_ generally used, for in the 4th year of Henry VI. (1425-26), an information was laid against a person for putting into beer “an unwholesome weed called _an hopp_;”[2051] and in the same reign, Parliament was petitioned against “that wicked weed called _hops_.”

But it is evident that hops were soon found to possess good qualities, and that though their use was denounced, it was not suppressed. Thus in the regulations for the household of Henry VIII. (1530-31), there is an injunction that the brewer is “not to put any hops or brimstone into the ale”;[2052] while in the very same year (1530), hundreds of pounds of Flemish hops were purchased for the use of the noble family of L’Estranges of Hunstanton.[2053]

In 1552 the cultivation of hops in England was distinctly sanctioned by the 5th and 6th of Edward VI. c. 5, which directs that land formerly in tillage should again be so cultivated, excepting it should have been set with _hops_ or saffron. Notwithstanding these facts, hops were for a long period hardly regarded an essential in brewing, as may be gathered from the remark of Gerarde (_ob._ A.D. 1607), who speaks of them as used “to season” beer or ale, explaining that notwithstanding their manifold virtues, they “rather make it a physical drinke to keepe the body in health, than an ordinary drinke for the quenching of our thirst.” In reality, other herbs were for a long period employed to impart to malt liquor a bitter or aromatic taste, as Ground Ivy (_Nepeta Glechoma_ Benth.); anciently called Ale-hoof or Gill; Alecost (_Balsamita vulgaris_ L.); Sweet Gale (_Myrica Gale_ L.); and Sage (_Salvia officinalis_ L.). Even Long Pepper and Bay Berries were used for the same purpose,[2054] but in addition to hops.

Though English hops were esteemed superior to foreign, and were extensively grown as early as 1603, as shown by an act of James I.,[2055] Flemish hops continued to be imported in considerable quantities down to 1693.

[2051] The authority for this statement is an isolated memorandum in a MS. volume (No. 980) by Thomas Gybbons, preserved in the Harleian collection in the British Museum.

[2052] _Archæologia_, iii. (1786) 157.

[2053] _Ibid._ xxv. (1834) 505.

[2054] Holinshed, _Chronicles_, vol. i.