Note 439 — PART I.

This appears to be the same with what in India they call bing, and is no other than the leaves of the female hemp, first powdered, then put into wet pepper, and covered with hot ashes till it forms a sort of paste, which they press into a thin cake, and then cut it into small lozenges, and dry it. About half a drachm of this put into a pipe of tobacco, or rather the nargeery, and smoked with the tobacco, will make a person drunk, or rather mad; and a few grains, mixed with any thing sweet (particularly, as they say, figs, though perhaps what it is swallowed in is of little consequence), will, if taken inwardly, have the same effect. They assert that acids will immediately put a stop to its effects. This intoxicating quality of the hemp is mentioned by Galen.