Pharmakologisch-medicinische Studien über den Hanf (1856)

Pharmakologisch-medicinische Studien über den Hanf

Pharmacological-Medical Studies on Hemp

Publication

Author	Georg Martius(fl. 1856)
Language	German
Composed	1855–1856
Published	1856
Publisher	Leopold Voss
Place	Leipzig
Volumes	1

Cannabis Content

Pages	1–144
Regions documented	India, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Java, Ambon, Brazil, Southern Africa
Preparations	Haschisch; Banghie; Majum; Subjah; Bers (boluses); Bernavi (electuary); Bosa (drink); Mafo-san; Dacha
Uses documented	Medicinal, recreational, anaesthetic
Taxonomic significance	Synthesises Christison's 1851 comparative grow-out experiments confirming no specific distinction between Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica

Access

Digital facsimile	View on BHL
Original held at	Wellcome Library, London

The Pharmakologisch-medicinische Studien über den Hanf ("Pharmacological-Medical Studies on Hemp") is the inaugural dissertation of Dr. Georg Martius of Erlangen, published in Leipzig by Leopold Voss in 1856. The work surveys the hemp plant across four domains: history, botany, pharmacognosy and chemistry. It includes a chronological bibliography of pre-1856 literature on cannabis spanning three centuries and is one of the earliest German academic works to treat the subject systematically.

The dissertation was partly enabled by a shipment of fresh hashish from Dr. Steege, a court pharmacist (Hofapotheker) in Bucharest. Martius also acknowledges Prof. von Gorup-Besanez for supervising the chemical work and Prof. Schnizlein for botanical guidance.

Background and context

Martius opens the dissertation with an observation about the cyclical nature of pharmacological interest: remedies that fall into obscurity are periodically rediscovered and restored to prominence. He presents hemp as an example of this pattern. Although the plant had been known since antiquity and used medicinally across Asia for centuries, it attracted serious therapeutic attention in European medicine only from the late 1830s, following the work of O'Shaughnessy in Calcutta (1839) and Moreau's psychiatric experiments in Paris (1841–1845).

Martius notes that earlier European attempts to use hemp medicinally (including Molwitz's proposal in 1817 for a wine-based extract of fresh hemp leaves as an opium substitute, Hahnemann's use of the alcoholic extract against nervous complaints and its successful application against whooping cough at the Berlin Polyclinic in 1823) all fell into obscurity. Even Wibmer's experiments with tincture of fresh hemp in the early 1830s failed to establish the plant in the European pharmacopoeia, and Parent-Duchatelet's contemporaneous findings, which contradicted all prior experience of the plant's narcotic properties, appeared to settle the matter against it.

The turning point, Martius argues, came when clinicians began working with Indian hemp specifically. O'Shaughnessy's therapeutic applications of the Indian hemp extract from 1839, Liautaud's work in Calcutta in 1844, Aubert-Roche's use of cannabis during the plague in the Orient (1840) and Moreau's experiments with hashish on psychiatric patients in Paris generated the attention that earlier work with European-grown hemp had not.

Bibliography

The opening section of the dissertation (pp. 5–16) compiles a chronological bibliography of literature on hemp from Galen (1538 edition) to von Bibra (1855), listing approximately 200 individual works and notices drawn from pharmacological treatises, botanical catalogues, travel literature, chemical journals and medical periodicals in Latin, German, French, English and Dutch.

Notable entries include the works of Prosper Alpin on Egyptian preparations (1591), Garcia ab Horto and Costa via Clusius (1605), Kaempfer's Amoenitates exoticae (1712), Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense (1750), O'Shaughnessy's Calcutta publications (1839–1843), Moreau's Du Hachisch et de l'aliénation mentale (1845) and Christison's Edinburgh experiments (1851).

The bibliography is useful as a research tool because it consolidates references scattered across pharmacological, botanical, travel and chemical literature, particularly the German-language journal notices from Buchner's Repertorium, Brandes' Archiv and the Pharmaceutisches Centralblatt that are otherwise difficult to locate.

Historical section

Ancient and classical sources

Martius traces the earliest references to hemp to Herodotus (Histories, Book IV), who first mentions the name κάνναβις and reports that the Scythians and Thracians made garments from the fibre. He notes that two passages frequently cited by pharmacologists, in Homer (Odyssey IV, 220 ff.) and Herodotus (Book IV, c. 75), as evidence for ancient knowledge of hemp's intoxicating properties can equally be explained in other ways, and that the use of hemp as an intoxicant or narcotic probably belongs to the Common Era rather than antiquity.

Hippocrates (c. 500 BCE) knew neither the seed nor the herb, and Theophrastus (c. 370 BCE), despite citing the Homeric passages in his discussion of mysterious remedies, makes no mention of hemp. Pliny and Dioscorides included hemp among medicinal plants; Dioscorides recommended the oil pressed from fresh seeds against earache caused by hardened cerumen. Galen was the first to note the plant's intoxicating properties, describing small cakes containing hemp served at dessert to stimulate drinking, which in excess could cloud the head and stupefy.

Chinese anaesthetic use

Martius reports, citing the Comptes rendus (1849), that the Chinese physician Hoa-Tho (c. 220 CE) performed surgery on patients after rendering them insensible with a hemp preparation called Mafo-san, composed of wine and a powdered hemp product. He also cites Riegler's observation that the principle underlying European ether inhalation was not new: among the Indians, a medicine called "Esrar" (meaning "secret") had served the same anaesthetic purpose since ancient times and had long been identified as Cannabis indica.

Oriental preparations

Drawing on a wide range of travel literature and pharmacological works, Martius catalogues regional preparation names and methods:

• Egypt: Prosper Alpin (1591) describes leaves powdered and mixed with sweetened water into a paste, formed into boluses (Bers) the size of chestnuts, sold cheaply enough for common people. Five or more are consumed for intoxication. He also describes the electuary Bernavi and the drink Bosa, composed of darnel flour, hemp seed and water.
• Persia: Olearius reports that Persians consumed hemp seeds and leaves especially as an aphrodisiac. Leaves were gathered before seed set, dried in shade, powdered and mixed with honey into balls the size of pigeon eggs; up to three were taken at a time.
• India: Ainslie records three principal preparations among the East Indians: Banghie (a drink from hemp leaves), Majum (an electuary of hemp leaves, poppy seed, datura flowers, nux vomica, milk and sugar) and Subjah. The leaves were also applied against diarrhoea, and an infusion of leaves with oil was used externally against neuralgias and haemorrhoidal pain.
• Arabia and Syria: Russel and Niebuhr describe the smoking of hemp leaves (Haschisch or Schihra) mixed with moistened tobacco through the Nardschihli (water pipe), a practice widespread among the lower classes of Arabs.
• Morocco and Fez: Host reports that inhabitants chewed leaves and seeds together, or cooked them with stems, spices and honey to make Masun; it was also smoked.
• Southern Africa: Kolb records that among the Khoikhoi, the smoking of Dacha (hemp) was universal among men and women: "It drives away sorrow and unrest just like wine and brandy, and awakens the sweetest thoughts." They often mixed Dacha with tobacco, calling the mixture Buspach.
• Brazil: Spix and Martius report that hemp leaves were known in Brazil in pill and decoction form, smoked frequently by enslaved Africans; severe nervous disorders were said to be a common consequence.

The Assassins

Martius recounts the role of hashish in the history of the Assassins (Haschischin, "herb-eaters"), the secret order active in Persia and Syria from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. According to Martius, Hashish consumption was the principal means by which the order's leaders induced unconditional obedience and fearless disregard for death in their followers.

Botanical section

Systematic position

Martius follows the classification of Endlicher and Lindley in placing Cannabis within the natural family Cannabineae, closely allied to the nettles (Urticaceae) and comprising only two genera: Cannabis and Humulus (hops). He notes that the close systematic relationship confirms the Linnaean principle that plants of related medicinal properties also resemble one another morphologically: hemp and hops have analogous effects on the animal organism.

The Cannabis indica question

Martius addresses directly the question of whether the Indian hemp plant constitutes a separate species. Lamarck had described Cannabis indica as a distinct species based on external morphological differences and differing pharmacological potency. However, Martius reports that Kaempfer, Willdenow, Roxburgh, Kosteletzky and other authorities found no specific botanical distinction between the Indian and European plants.

He gives particular attention to Alexander Christison's comparative grow-out experiments at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden in 1849–1851. Christison sowed seeds from dried Indian Gunjah on 17 March 1849. The plants sprouted within days and reached three feet in three weeks. Three seedlings transplanted outdoors attained nine and a half feet by 1 October, with thick, somewhat woody stems and abundant dense rough leaves; however, cold weather prevented flowering. Plants grown in the greenhouse reached only four feet, with smaller, sparser and more delicate foliage, but did flower. European hemp grown alongside was already in full fruit.

The Indian plants were larger than the European ones, with narrower leaf segments, but showed no other botanical distinction. Despite the abundant resin (Churrus) that the Indian plant produces in its homeland, no visible resin was observed on either the Edinburgh outdoor or greenhouse specimens, confirming earlier observations by Kaempfer and Hope. All outdoor plants were female; one or two males appeared in the greenhouse.

Christison concluded that the resin glands produce abundant resin only under certain climatic conditions, and that neither greenhouse culture nor the Scottish climate sufficed. Martius adds that a loose, rich, nitrogen-containing soil should also be considered a factor, noting that even in India the plant varies in resin content depending on whether it grows on mountains or plains and whether it stands densely or widely spaced.

Morphological differences noted

While maintaining there is no specific distinction, Martius compiles the morphological differences commonly reported between European and Indian plants:

• Height: In southern and central Europe the cultivated plant reaches 12 to 15 feet (in Alsace reportedly up to 22 feet); in its original homeland, the Indian plant rarely exceeds half that height.
• Fibre: Rumphius noted that the bast of Cannabis indica, especially on the male plant, was too thin, short and weak for technical use, though Costa contradicted this, stating that the bark of the Bangue produced equally good fibre.
• Seeds: Indian hemp seeds were generally described as smaller, rounder and darker in colour, an observation Martius confirmed from his own examination.
• Resin production: The Indian plant in its homeland exudes resin abundantly from flowers and leaves; European-grown hemp produces comparatively little, though fresh European plants still possess an extremely strong, unpleasant, often stupefying odour. It was well known that prolonged exposure in a flowering hemp field could cause dizziness, headache and a form of drunkenness.

Monoecious flowering

Martius reports that Dr. Muller in Patna had recently observed monoecious flowering in self-grown Indian hemp plants, contradicting the standard assumption that cannabis is strictly dioecious. He notes that Autenrieth had earlier reported that pruning the flowering branches of female plants could induce regrowth bearing male and hermaphrodite flowers, and had even published an illustration of a hermaphrodite flower.

Pharmacognostic section

Martius notes that until recently, only the fruit or seed (Semen cannabis) and the pressed seed oil (Oleum cannabis) had found general medical application in the European pharmacopoeia. The Indian preparations, derived primarily from the flowering tops, leaves and resin, were a different pharmacological resource that European medicine was only beginning to take up.

He describes the principal commercial forms of Indian hemp then available:

• Bang (also Bhang, Banghie): the dried leaves and smaller stems, less resinous, used primarily as a drink preparation.
• Gunjah: the dried flowering tops of female plants, considerably richer in resin than Bang, and the preferred form for medicinal use and for the preparation of hashish.
• Churrus (also Charas): the pure resin, collected by hand-rubbing the living plants or by other mechanical means; the most potent form.
• Haschisch: a general term for various preparations, but in commerce typically referring to a resinous extract or to the prepared plant material ready for smoking or ingestion.

Significance for landrace documentation

Martius's dissertation is useful for landrace research in several respects:

• The bibliography (pp. 5–16) compiles approximately 200 pre-1856 references to cannabis from pharmacological, botanical, travel, chemical and medical literature across five languages. Many are obscure German journal notices that remain difficult to locate.
• The synthesis of Christison's Edinburgh grow-out experiments provides the most accessible German-language account of the first controlled comparison between Indian and European hemp grown from seed under identical conditions, with direct observations on resin production failure outside tropical climates.
• The catalogue of regional preparation names and methods documents mid-nineteenth-century knowledge across India, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, North Africa, southern Africa and Brazil, preserving ethnobotanical detail from sources that are themselves now rare.
• The discussion of monoecious flowering in Indian hemp, citing Muller in Patna and Autenrieth's earlier observations, is an early documentation of sexual plasticity in cannabis, a subject that remains relevant to landrace genetics and farmer selection practices.
• The observation that European-grown hemp retains strong narcotic odour even when resin production is minimal supports the view that the sativa/indica distinction reflects environmental expression rather than fixed genetic divergence.

See also

• Herbarium Amboinense, Rumphius's botanical catalogue, cited extensively by Martius
• Garcia ab Orta, Portuguese physician whose Colóquios (1563) is a key source for Martius
• Indonesia
• India
• Cannabis cultivation

References

Further reading

• Christison, A. (1851). "On the nature, history, action and uses of Indian hemp." Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Medical Science, July.
• O'Shaughnessy, W.B. (1839). On the preparations of the Indian hemp or Gunjah, their effects on the animal system. Calcutta.
• Moreau, J. (1845). Du Hachisch et de l'aliénation mentale. Paris.
• von Bibra, E. (1855). Die narkotischen Genussmittel und der Mensch. Nuremberg, pp. 265 ff.

External links

• Full text on Internet Archive (Wellcome Library digitisation)
• OCR text on Internet Archive

Georg Martius 1855–1856 1856 German Leopold Voss Leipzig 1–144 India Persia Egypt Arabia Java Ambon Brazil Southern Africa Haschisch Banghie Majum Subjah Bers Bernavi Bosa Mafo-san Dacha Medicinal Recreational Anaesthetic Synthesises Christison's 1851 comparative grow-out experiments confirming no specific distinction between Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica https://archive.org/details/b22283699 Wellcome Library, London Inaugural dissertation