From this saintly sepulchre the knowledge of the effects of hemp is stated to have spread into Khorasan. In Chaldea it was unknown until 728 M. E. during the reign of the Khalif Mostansir Billah; the kings of Ormus and Bahrein then introduced it into Chaldea, Syria, Egypt, and Turkey. In Khorasan, however, it seems that the date of the use of hemp is considered to be far prior to Haider’s era. Biraslan, an Indian pilgrim, the contemporary of Cosröes,[2] is believed to have introduced and diffused the custom through Khorasan and Yemen. In proof of the great antiquity of the practice, certain passages in the works of Hippocrates may be cited, in which some of its properties are clearly described, but the difficulty of deciding whether the passages be spurious or genuine, renders the fact of little value. Dioscorides (lib. ij. cap. 169), describes hemp, but merely notices the emollient properties of its seeds; its intoxicating effects must consequently be regarded as unknown to the Greeks prior to his era, which is generally agreed to be about the second century of the Christian epoch, and somewhat subsequent to the life-time of Pliny. In the narrative of Makrizi we also learn that oxymel and acids are the most powerful antidotes to the effects of this narcotic; next to these, emetics, cold bathing, and sleep; and we are further told that it possesses diuretic, astringent, and especially aphrodisiac properties. Ibn Beitar was the first to record its tendency to produce mental derangement, and he even states that it occasionally proves fatal. In 780 M. E. very severe ordinances were passed in Egypt against the practice; the Djoneina garden was rooted up, and all those convicted of the use of the drug were subjected to the extraction of their teeth; but in 799 the custom re-established itself with more than original vigor. Makrizi draws an expressive picture of the evils this vice then inflicted on its votaries--“As its consequence, general corruption of sentiments and manners ensued, modesty disappeared, every base and evil passion was openly indulged in, and nobility of external form alone remained to these infatuated beings.” _Medicinal Properties assigned to Hemp by the Ancient Arabian and Persian Writers, and by Modern European Authors._ In the preceding notice of Makrizi’s writings on this subject, we have confined ourselves chiefly to historical details, excluding descriptions of supposed medicinal effects. The Mukzun-ul-Udwieh and the Persian MS. in our possession, inform us as to the properties which the ancient physicians attributed to this powerful narcotic.