nine volumes, dating from 1867 to 1903. It contains reports detailing research on hemp and opium usage in British India, of particular note is the 1893 Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report, as well as information on the cultivation of cinchona trees and reports from the Nilgiris plantation. Research on chloroform anaesthesia can also be found here, as can details about its clinical trials and debates on the safety of the drug. Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report The Hemp Drugs Commission was formed in 1893 following a question posed in the House of Commons regarding hemp production and its use in Bengal, India. The job of the commission was to conduct a thorough investigation into the use of hemp drugs and its effects on physical, mental and moral wellbeing, and is a compilation of the answers to 70 questions asked in 30 cities across India to over 2,000 missionaries, hemp cultivators, traders, medical staff, and military personnel. This report shows the relationship between cannabis users and the government, its questions being indicative of the governments consideration of prohibition and also of its consequences (ie. loss of tax income). The commission report had controversial findings. Many of those interviewed voiced that cannabis, indigenous to South Asia and deeply rooted in Indian culture and religion, was used for thousands of years prior for the host of nutritional and medicinal benefits that it provided. This, alongside experiments which showed that cannabis benefitted manual labourers on poor diets, meant that the commission eventually decided to control and restrict cannabis with adequate taxation, ensuring cultivators had to obtain licences and also making sure there was a limit on sales and legal possession. The NLS is in possession of the only copy which contains photographs: 16 sepia-toned pictures of the plant, cannabis users, and cannabis traders. Veterinary medicine This section contains 146 volumes dated from 1864 to 1959. It is split into three series: Veterinary diseases, Colleges and laboratories, and Civil Veterinary Departments. The reports consist of extensive medical research relating to trypanosomiasis and rinderpest, and on a more general scale reports showing how veterinary medicine combatted and controlled disease, maintained livestock, and helped to alleviate famine. Of particular note are books about elephant health and disease, as well as much information on husbandry and management of working elephants. Mental health The Mental health collection consists of reports which describe the lunatic asylums and mental hospitals in