Angelo Mariani

“ Linnæus says that Coca possesses: "the penetrating aroma of vegetable stimulants, the astricting and fortifying virtues of an astringent, the antispasmodic qualities of bitters, and the mucilaginous nutritive properties of analeptics or of alimentary plants. This leaf," he continues, "exhibits with energy its action on all parts of the animal economy: Olido in nervos, sapido in fibras utroque in fluido."
Father don Antonio Julian wrote: "This plant is a preventive against many diseases, a restorative of lost strength, and is capable of prolonging human life. ”

“ Under the esteemed patronage of our greatest medical celebrities, our preparations are known all over the world; they have reached all classes of society and everywhere, in the large cities as in the small villages, men, women, children, in fact, convalescents of all ages now know the name of the salutary plant, which it is and has been our effort to popularize, though strictly so according to the code of medical ethics and by those channels approved of by the entire medical profession. ”

“ DISEASES OF THE STOMACH.
Authors who have given attention to Coca speak very highly of its employment in gastralgia and tardy and laborious digestion.
Demarle says on this subject: "Personally, I have found the use of Coca, either before or after eating, excellent for gastrodynia and pyrosis, to which I am subject; hardly have I swallowed the first bit of saliva when the whole unpleasant feeling disappears."
Mantegazza speaks of its use in the same strain. The cephalic congestion which accompanies his digestion is relieved; he can work after eating without feeling any uneasiness. ”

“ It is sincerely to be regretted that so many poor families do not possess this preventive of hunger and thirst; that so many employees and laborers should be deprived of this means of maintaining their strength in the midst of continuous toil; that so many old and young men engaged in the arduous task of study and the accomplishment of their undertakings are unable to derive the beneficial results of this plant to guard against the exhaustion of the vital spirits, debility of the brain, and weakness of the stomach, which are frequent results of continuous study. ”

“ This extract, prepared in special apparatuses which prevent all alteration and preserve all its properties and all its aroma, answers entirely in the various modes of using Coca and constitutes a most scrupulously exact preparation in dose, the most convenient and the most active that could be desired.
Thé Mariani is capable of indefinite preservation and easy of transportation; it renders great service to persons who make mountain ascensions, fatiguing marches, or long journeys through unhealthy countries, and in fact in whatever may be called fatiguing work or pleasure. ”

“ No happiness is comparable to his! See with what an important air he draws forth the Coca leaves from his chuspa, as he rolls them in his fingers to make a large quid of them, which he carries to his mouth, moistens delightingly with saliva, and places under his jaws and against his cheeks. He is seen holding carefully in his right hand the little stick, the extremity of which he is going to moisten by putting it into his mouth, and [25] which he will dip into the poporo in order that the llipta may adhere to its moistened part. ”

“ But nearly always their breath, charged with the tell-tale odor of Coca, betrays them on approaching their parents, and the latter make them pay for the pleasure which they have stolen, and to which they are not entitled until they are of age, with very severe punishment. Only when they have grown up will they be allowed to chew Coca and to carry the poporo, which they do not relinquish even in the grave.
On coming of age the young Indian is consigned to an old woman, who keeps him a few hours in her hut to initiate him in the mysteries of man's estate. ”

“ Thé Mariani has rendered us real service during expeditions as well as in hospital practice; on the march it makes with boiled water, with or without the addition of sugar, a very agreeable, tonic and stimulating drink; a veritable reserve food, it takes the place of alcoholic drinks and insufficiency of food, and aids the men in bearing the most distressing fatigue. The water of swamps, rivers or ditches, mixed with a few spoonfuls of Thé Mariani, could be drank without any inconvenience, and assuaged thirst. ”

“ It was Charles Fauvel who first described the anæsthetizing effect of Coca on the pharyngeal mucous membrane [8] . Thanks to this circumstance, he has been able to derive much benefit from the use of Coca in granular pharyngitis which is generally unaffected by any other kind of treatment.
Fauvel further showed that the stimulating effect which Coca exercises on all the muscles of the economy, appears to manifest itself specially on all the muscles of the larynx. Hence his apt qualification of the drug, "a tensor par excellence of the vocal cords." ”

“ Coca taken in infusion gave excellent results to Tschudy while he was sojourning in the valley of the Puna, the highest in Bolivia, which has given its name to the disease of mountain sickness, known in Peru by the name Mal de Puna, also designated by the words sorroche, veta and mareo; this last term shows clearly enough the analogy which exists between sea-sickness and the influence of great altitudes on the human body. Experience has proved the usefulness of Coca against dyspnœa and vomiting, so that the Indians who make ascensions always carry a stock of Coca with them. ”

“ After a month's treatment I had succeeded in reducing the daily doses without causing alarming symptoms; the physiological functions seemed to awaken again. However, the congestion and especially the dyspepsia was very grave, and the cough which had been suppressed by morphine returned. It was then that I treated my patient with phosphate of lime, the pâte and the Vin Mariani. Lacking his habitual stimulant, he was plunged in a semi-coma from which he could not always be relieved with weaker daily doses of morphine. ”

“ It is here that Vin Mariani, proves its great advantage and succeeds where other tonics have failed, in stimulating the functions of the stomach. On the one hand by the small quantity of tannin which it contains, on the other through the active principles of Coca, associated with the [54] wine, which serves as a vehicle, exciting the vitality of each organ separately, not, however, without having previously exerted its vivifying action on the mucous membrane of the stomach itself. ”

“ A small glass of the Elixir Mariani taken after a meal, spreads a gentle warmth through the stomach and calls forth an abundant secretion of gastric juice, which mixes with the food and facilitates digestion.
For travelers, hunters, and in general all who walk much and who are exposed to fatigue, to dampness, and to fog, the use of the Elixir Mariani may be recommended and will render admirable service, because of the tone and strength that it gives to the stomach and to the muscles. ”

“ He carefully carries the part of his little stick covered with llipta to his quid, and thus performs the operation of mixing the alkaline powder with the masticated leaf. It is at this moment that the quid of Coca affords the young adult the most delightful sensation. ”

“ It is better, in cases of this sort, to prescribe extract of Coca, which answers the same purposes without the attendant danger of Cocaine.
One of the greatest triumphs of extract of Coca is assuredly its action in dysphagia and in the vomiting of consumptives, as also in the vomiting of pregnancy. The first two complications are of the gravest kind, for they condemn to starvation patients whose only chance of safety lies in the activity of the digestive organs (Ch. Fauvel and Coupard) . ”

“ In the seventeenth century, l'abbé Longuerue, who was a theologian, an historian, and a philologist, speaking of the Spanish colonies in South America, says, in regard to the mines explored in Peru: "The negroes can not work in [29] the mines, they all die. Hardly any but the natives are able to endure this labor, and then it is necessary to relieve them frequently and that they should chew Coca, without which the quicksilver vapors would kill them." ”

“ We shall not stop to quote the different writings of observers who have interested themselves in Coca. It may be inferred from the preceding statements that Coca possesses this particular character, viz., of enabling those [30] who make use of it to withstand the greatest fatigue. Men employed in hard work in mines, couriers obliged to traverse mountainous countries difficult of travel without being able to take much rest, in a word, persons subject to overwork in every way, all agree in recognizing the strengthening and nerve-fortifying action of Coca. ”

“ We have reviewed the works of the different authors who occupied themselves with Coca; their various labors, although very interesting, did not reach the famous discovery of local anæsthesia, and it is to Köller, of Vienna [10] , that the honor belongs of having brought to light the remarkable effect of Cocaine when applied to the conjunctival membrane.
This soon awakened general curiosity. From all quarters came works on the subject. Reuss, Kœnigstein, Jellinck, Schrotter, Knapp and others hastened to give to the profession the result of their researches. ”

“ The physiological studies, researches, designs, etc., are made at our laboratory, Neuilly s/Seine, France, where, in connection with hot-houses, the study and cultivation of the Coca plant is carried on under my personal supervision, and am pleased to say have succeeded in producing large quantities of Coca plants, in all stages of growth and of various species, under all conditions of planting, by seeds, transplantation and grafting, all results being carefully watched and recorded. ”

“ The Coca leaves of Brazil and Colombia are much smaller than those of Peru and Bolivia. Their color is much paler. Containing but traces of the alkaloid they are not bitter, and possess a pleasant, but very volatile aroma. ”

“ In a word, all the smooth-fibred muscles or muscles of organic life, subordinate to the great sympathetic nervous system constrictor, undergo an augmentation of functional activity.
In a second essay (Comptes-rendus, Société de Biologie, Dec. 17, 1887) , the same experimenter studied more particularly the mechanism of the local or general analgesic action of Cocaine, and, like M. Arloing, as opposed to M. Laborde, he found that the cerebral perceptibility was [42] not deadened, by a physiological dose, but on the contrary, increased. ”

“ After this ceremony she gives him the chuspa (Coca pouch) , invests him with the poporo and consecrates him a coquero. One should see with what pride the young Indian leaves the threshold of the sacred cabin, which he entered as a child scarcely a few hours before and from which he departs a man, that is to say, carrying the chuspa and the poporo, and able to chew with impunity, before the old people, this precious leaf which had been forbidden him until then. ”

“ The cultivation of Coca trees is begun by sowing the seed in beds called Almazigos. As soon as the plant appears it is protected from the heat of the sun by means of screens and matting; when it reaches a height of from 40 to 50 centimetres, it is transferred to furrows 18 centimetres in length by 7 in depth, care being taken that each plant is separated from its neighbor by a distance of a foot. ”

“ Vin Mariani is unquestionably of benefit to people of sedentary habits worn out by work, to convalescents who, from a prolonged confinement in bed, have lost muscular strength, to patients suffering from diabetes or Bright's disease, whose muscles have lost their elasticity and vigor. ”

“ Coca is the remedy par excellence for diseases of the digestive tube."
Beugniès-Corbeau [19] prescribes it in chloro-anæmia, not only for gastralgia, but for the frequent desire to eat which patients feel, disappearing as soon as the first mouthful has been taken, only to return a little while afterward.
Prof. O. Réveil ends his article on Coca as follows: "Much remains to be done in the physiological and clinical study of Coca; it is known that it acts on the motor and sensory nervous system. This substance is destined some day to take an important rank in therapeutics." ”

“ As we have said before, the Indian never parts with his poporo, let him be awake or asleep, at home or on his travels, the poporo is always attached to his belt. An Indian would part with all he holds most dear in the world, all, except his poporo. ”

“ I have also used Vin Mariani to save smokers of exaggerated habits, from nicotinism. A few glasses of Vin Mariani taken in small doses, either pure or mixed with water, acted as a substitute for pipes and cigars, because the smokers found in it the cerebral excitement which they sought in tobacco, wholly preserving their intellectual faculties. ”

“ The following pages are inscribed and respectfully dedicated to the medical profession, as a token of appreciation for the kind aid ever extended to me in my efforts to popularize that valuable addition to therapeutics, "Erythroxylon Coca." ”