On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp,
or Gunjah,
(Cannabis Indica)
Their Effects on the Animal System in Health, and their Utility in the
Treatment of Tetanus and other convulsive Disorders.
By William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, MD,
Assistant Surgeon; Professor of Chemistry, Medical College, Kolkata; — and officiating Joint-Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Kolkata, 1839
Bishop's College Press
Solar Anamnesis Edition
CC89 1.8 Universal
Contents
Botanical characters — Chemical Properties — Production. 5
Popular uses. 7
Historical details — Notices of Hemp, and its popular uses, by the Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian writers. 9
Medicinal properties assigned to Hemp by the ancient Arabian and Persian writers, and by modern European authors. 12
Experiments by the author — inferences as to the action of the drug on animals and man. 15
Postscript. 28
The narcotic effects of Hemp are popularly known in the south of Africa,
South America, Turkey, Egypt, Asia Minor, India, and the adjacent territories of the Malays, Burmese, and Siamese. In all these countries Hemp is used in various forms, by the dissipated and depraved, as the ready agent of a pleasing intoxication. In the popular medicine of these nations, we find it extensively employed for a multitude of affections. But in western Europe its use either as a stimulant or as a remedy, is equally unknown. With the exc…