Professor Royle in his admirable work, entitled “Illustrations of the Botany, &c. of the Himalayas,” p. 334, gives a very brief notice of the synonymes and epithets of the hemp resin, and mentions its intoxicating properties, but affords us no information on its medicinal effects. _Experiments by the Author--Inferences as to the Action of the Drug on Animals and Man._ Such was the amount of preliminary information before me, by which I was guided in my subsequent attempts to gain more accurate knowledge of the action, powers, and possible medicinal applications of this remarkable agent. There was sufficient to show that hemp possesses, in small doses, an extraordinary power of stimulating the digestive organs, exciting the cerebral system, of acting also on the generative apparatus. Larger doses, again, were shown by the historical statements to induce insensibility or to act as a powerful sedative. The influence of the drug in allaying pain was equally manifest in all the memoirs referred to. As to the evil sequelæ so unanimously dwelt on by all writers, these did not appear to me so numerous, so immediate, or so formidable, as many which may be clearly traced to over-indulgence in other powerful stimulants or narcotics--viz, alcohol, opium, or tobacco. The dose in which the hemp preparations might be administered, constituted, of course, one of the first objects of inquiry. Ibn Beitar had mentioned a _direm_, or forty-eight grains of _churrus_; but this dose seemed to me so enormous, that I deemed it expedient to proceed with much smaller quantities. How fortunate was this caution, the sequel will sufficiently denote. An extensive series of experiments on animals was in the first place undertaken, among which the following may be cited:-- _Expt._ 1.--Ten grains of Nipalese _churrus_, dissolved in spirit were given to a middling sized dog. In half an hour he became stupid and sleepy, dozing at intervals, starting up, wagging his tail as if extremely contented; he ate some food greedily; on being called to he staggered to and fro, and his face assumed a look of utter and helpless drunkenness. These symptoms lasted about two hours, and then gradually passed away; in six hours he was perfectly well and lively. _Expt._ 2.--One drachm of _majoon_ was given to a small sized dog; he ate it with great delight, and in twenty minutes was ridiculously drunk; in four hours his symptoms passed away, also without harm. _Expts._ 3, 4, and 5.--Three kids had ten grains each of the alcoholic extract of _gunjah_. In one no effect was produced; in the second there was much heaviness, and some inability to move; in the third a marked alteration of countenance was conspicuous, but no further effect.