Natural order. Urticaceae. Common names. Hashish. Indian Hemp. Habitat. A plant native of India, botanically the same as the Cannabis sativa, but possessing very different medical properties. Preparation. Tincture from the dried herb-tops.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Cannabis Indica acts as a powerful excitant of the nervous system, perverting the functions of the brain, and increasing both intellectual and motor activity. For this reason, in India, it is used as an intoxicating exhilarant. Its action depends largely upon the temperament of the individual in whom it is employed, varying form a mild exhilaration, and happy reverie in some, to a most intense and highly exalted ecstasy in those most susceptible to its influence; in such, all sensation, perceptions and conceptions being exaggerated to the utmost degree. “Distances seem infinite and time endless; pleasure is paradise itself, and any painful thought or feeling plunges at once into the depths of misery. ” As the action varies in intensity, so also does it to some extent in character, according to the natural disposition of the person, the existing state of mind, and the quantity of the drug employed; the exhilaration and activity sometimes giving place to sadness, depression and weakness; and those possessing evil and malignant; dispositions sometimes become extremely vicious and violent. In short those faculties most active in health are most powerfully affected by the drug. Convulsions are sometimes produced. Its special effects may be better understood from a detailed study of the symptoms which arise.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Mind. Exaltation of spirit, with excessive loquacity (Hyoscyamus, Lachesis, Stramonium). Full of fun and mischief, and laughs immoderately, Hallucinations and imaginations innumerable (Absinth., Hyoscyamus, Stramonium). Imagines that he hears music, shuts his eyes and is lost in delicious thought. Imagined that he was gradually swelling. Ridiculous speculative ideas.
Anguish, accompanied by great oppression; better r in the open air. Constant fear of becoming insane (Calcarea c., Mercurius). Exaggeration of duration of time and extent of space; seconds seem ages, a few rods a immense distance. Horror of darkness. Fear of approaching death (Aconite, Arsenicum). Inability to recall any thought or event, on account of different thoughts crowding on his brain. Very absent-minded (Apis). Fixed ideas. Every few minutes he would lose himself, and then make up, as if were, too those around him. Clairvoyance. Delirium tremens; trembling; hallucinations; tendency to become furious; nausea; unquenchable thirst.
Head. Vertigo; on rising; with stunning pain in back part of head, and he falls. Frequent involuntary shaking of the head. Heavy pressure on the brain, forcing him to stoop. Violent shocks pass through the brain. Dull, Drawing pain in forehead, especially over the eyes. Throbbing, aching pain in forehead. Jerking in the right side of forehead, toward the interior and back part of head. Aching in both temples, most severe in the right. Dull stitching in the right temple. Pain in the whole side of the head. Head feels heavy, loses consciousness and falls.
Eyes. Fixed gaze. Visual clairvoyance. Jerking at the outer angle of the eye and eyelid. Injections of vessels of conjunctiva of both eyes (Aconite). Letters run together when reading. Twinkling, trembling and glimmering before the eyes.
Ears Aching both ears. Throbbing and fullness in both ears. Ringing and buzzing in the ears. Noise in the ears, like boiling water. Periodical singing in the ears during a dreamy spell, ceasing when he came to himself.
Face. Wearied exhausted appearance. Drowsy, stupid look.
Mouth. Lips feel as if glued together. Gritting and grinding of the teeth while sleeping (Cicuta). Dryness of the mouth and tips. While sleeping (Cicuta). Dryness s of the mouth and lips. White, thick, frothy and sticky saliva. Every article of food is extremely palatable. Stammering and stuttering (Causticum, Stramonium).
Throat. The throat is parched, accompanied by intense thirst for cold water.
Stomach. Ravenous hunger. Pain in the cardiac orifice, relieved by pressure. Swollen feeling when eating, with oppression of the chest, as if he would suffocate; must loosen the clothes.
Anus. Sensation in the anus as if he wee sitting on a ball; as if the anus and part of the urethra were filled up by a hard, round body.
Urinary Organs. Pains in the kidneys when laughing. Burning, aching, or sharp stitches in the kidneys. A white glairy mucus may be squeezed from the urethra. Burning and scalding or stinging pain in the urethra before, during and after urination, (Can sat., Cantharis). Urging to urinate, but cannot pass a drop. Profuse, colorless urine. Has to wait some time before the urine flows. Has to force out the last few drops with the hand. The urine dribbles out after the stream ceases.
Male Organs Sexual desire excessively increased (Cantharis). Erections not cause by amorous thoughts. Violent painful erections (Canth,); chordee. Penis relaxed and shrunken (Agn.). Satyriasis. Itching in the glans pen. Sensation as if drops were falling from the heart. Stitches in the heart, accompanied by great oppression; the latter relieved by deep breathing. Pulse very slow (as slow as 46.) (Digitalis, Opium).
Back. Pain across the shoulders and spine; must stoop, cannot walk erect.
Limbs. Paralysis of the lower limbs and right arm.
Upper Limbs. Agreeable thrilling through the arms and hands.
Lower Limbs. Entire paralysis of the lower extremities. Weariness in limbs, and stiffness and aching in knees; almost paralysis. Agreeable thrilling from the knees down, with a sensation as if a bird’s claws were clasping the knees.
On attempting to walk, intensely violent pain as if treading on spikes, which penetrated the soles and ran upward through the limbs to the hips; worse in right limb, and accompanied by drawing pains in both calves.
Shooting pain in the joints of the toes of left foot; worse in great toe; aching and stitching pain in ball of left great toe.
Generalities. Great desire to lie down in the daytime. Thoroughly exhausted after a short walk. Felt so weak that he could scarcely speak (Stannum), and soon fell into a deep sleep.
Sleep. Excessive sleepiness (Nux moschata); sound sleep, with melancholy dreams. Starting of the limbs while sleeping causing him to awake. Voluptuous dreams, with erections and profuse seminal emissions. Dreams prophetic; vexatious; of head bodies, of danger and of perils to be encountered. Nightmare every night as soon as he falls sleep.
Fever. Loss of animal heat (Silicea, Sepia). General chilliness. Coldness of the face, nose and hands after dinner. Profuse sticky sweat, standing out in drops on his forehead.
Aggravation. From coffee; while eating; from liquor and tobacco; on right side.
Conditions. Affects nervous and sanguine temperaments most the bilious nearly as much; the lymphatic but slightly.
Compare. Agaricus, Belladonna, Camph., Digit., Can. sat., Cantharis, Crocus, Nux v., Hyoscyamus, Opium, Stramonium
THERAPEUTICS.
Not extensively used. May be indicated by its peculiar mental symptoms in delirium tremens and mania. Catalepsy; neuralgia, migraine, as if the head were opening and shutting with mental symptoms. Uraemic headaches. Said to be especially useful in gonorrhoea when the chordee is well marked. Uterine colic.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).