1 157
2 Churrus is never used as an interior remedy. I have made
3 different trials with it, and refer for a further description of its
4 qualities to the second volume of this work.
5 The general use of churrus consists in mixing it with tobacco,
6 and smoking it in the hooka (water pipe), and the natives
7 sometimes place themselves in a circle around the hooka, each
8 taking a few inhalations, and then passing the tube to another.
9 The inebriating power of churrus manifests itself immediately,
10 jut also ceases very speedily. Its immoderate use frequently
11 produces mental derangement.
12 The Sikhs are forbidden smoking tobacco, and consequently
13 from smoking churrus also, inasmuch as it is always mixed
14 with tobacco. Asa compensation for this deprivation they are
15 permitted to use opium and spirituous liquors to any extent,
16 whence the great number of opium-eaters among those people,
17 both males and females, in all classes of society.
18 The cannabis indica, has a similar appearance to our can-
19 nabis sativa , but they are very different in their properties,
20 and it is remarkable that the former loses its effective virtue
21 when transmitted to Europe. It is asserted that even the
22 resinous extract which was prepared at Calcutta, was less
23 energetic at London than in India, If that be the case, I
24 ascribe the circumstance to the difference of the climate, or
25 its conveyance over the sea, having myself experienced that
26 several medicaments, which I had brought with me from those
27 countries, lost their virtue during my six months1 voyage down
28 the Ganges and across the ocean. It has yet to be ascertained
29 whether our cannabis sativa would be of the same effective
30 nature in India as in Europe. The apparent difference between
31 those two plants consists only in the size of their seeds, those
32 >f the cannabis indica being smaller than those of the European
33 >lant.
34 Opium, as I ( have already mentioned, is also extensively used
35 n India, and is still more detrimental than the other intoxicat-
36 ng drugs whose preparation and use I have been describing;
37 mple particulars respecting the effects produced by it will