Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I
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CH. XII.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 239
Out of 1,344 admissions
to the asylums of British India during 1892, there
are shown to be only 98 cases (or 7.3 per cent.) in which the use
of hemp drugs
may be reasonably regarded as a factor in causing the insanity. If
the "mixed"
cases in which the hemp drugs have only been accepted as one of
several
possible causes are omitted, the percentage falls to 4.5. It must
be
borne in mind, however, that there were 42 per cent. of the
admissions for 1892
in which the cause of insanity was shown as "unknown." Among these
"un-
known" cases there may, no doubt, have been some in which hemp
drugs may,
as in the accepted cases, have played some part in causing
insanity. If it had
been possible to ascertain the history of these "unknown" cases, it
might have
been found that there was in a considerable number of them a
history of the use
of hemp drugs, and perhaps that in some of them these drugs had
played some
part at least in causing the insanity. It might appear at first
sight to be more
correct to take the percentage, not on the total admissions into
the asylums, but
on the "known" cases among these admissions. The total number of
"known"
cases (i. e., cases in which the cause was supposed
to be known) among the
admissions for 1892 was 775. This would give a percentage of hemp
drug cases
at 12.6. But the Commission do not see their way to accept this
method of cal-
culation as accurate. For they consider that both experience and
the whole his-
tory of this inquiry have shown that there is little difficulty in
ascertaining the
existence of the ganja habit among persons such as are sent to the
asylums, and
also that there is no hesitation in ascribing insanity to that
habit. They are
therefore of opinion that it is safe to presume that in the great
majority of the
"unknown" cases no ganja habit did exist, and that they would be
further from
the truth in taking the percentage at 12.6 than at 7.3.
Mixed cases.
522. On the other hand,
it would be far from accurate to say that it has
been ascertained that the
insanity was in all these 98
cases due solely to hemp drugs. In the first place,
there are 37 of them (or nearly 38 per cent.) in which there is a
clear history of
some other cause. The causes which are shown thus to have possibly
co-oper-
ated with hemp drugs in inducing insanity (with the number of
causes for
each) are as follow:—
Heredity |
4 |
Grief |
3 |
" alcohol and vice |
2 |
" hard life and liquor |
1 |
" and business losses |
1 |
" and opium |
1 |
Fever |
1 |
Madak |
1 |
Sun and malaria |
3 |
Acholol |
11 |
Syphilis |
1 |
" and opium |
1 |
Sexual excess |
1 |
" and vicious habits |
2 |
Dhatura |
3 |
" and epilepsy |
1 |
Heredity.
523. Only a few remarks
need be made regarding these "mixed" cases. So
far as the inquiries have
established the real facts
regarding these cases, there are seven into which
heredity enters as a predisposing fa ctor. The number of cases
attributed to
heredity throughout India in 1892 was 51, or 3.8 per cent. of the
admis-
sions (1,344). These seven cases may perhaps be added to this
number, giving
a total of 58, or 4.3 per cent. In England the percentage of cases
attri-
buted to heredity is 19.0 for males and 22.1 for females. These
percentages
are based on statistics for ten years, dealing with 136,478
patients (vide
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India Papers > Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I > (272) Page 239 |
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Description | Chapter XII, cont. |
Description | [Volume 1]: Report. |
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