The Medical Times publishes an analysis of the answers received
from upwards of one hundred medical officers and civilians to an independent inquiry started by the British Medical Association as to the use and abuse of opium in India. It is, on the whole, decidedly favourable to the use of the drug in comparison with the use of alcohol. The people, it is stated, who use it take from two to four grains a day— it must be remenbered that the Indian drug is refined and weakened past any form of it known in Europe----and rarely go beyond the full dose. They believe it to be a prophylactic against malaria, and although that seems to be doubtful, it undoubtedly acts as a sudorific, prevents hunger, like coca, and is a specific against most forms of bowel-disease. Even those medical officers who believe it to be useless, pronounce it morally harmless, as its use never leads to crime ; while all, with one consent, declare that it cannot be prohibited, as an illicit trade instantly springs up, which in the ease of a drug so small in bulk, and so sheltered by native opinion, would be entirely beyond control. Hitherto it has been assumed that the use of opium could be prohibited as easily as the use of hemp ; but that is not the case, the former being approved and the latter condemned by religious opinion, whether Mussulman or Hindoo.
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