Coca

“ Secure from intrusion he crouches in an obscure corner, his eyes immovably fixed upon one spot; and the almost automatic motion of the hand raising the coca to the mouth, and its mechanical chewing, are the only signs of consciousness which he exhibits. ”

“ Coca wine, and other medicated wines are largely sold to people who are considered, and consider themselves, to be total abstainers. It is not uncommon to hear the mother of a family say, 'I never allow my girls to touch stimulants of any kind, but I give them each a glass of coca wine at 11 in the morning, and again at bedtime.' Originally coca wine was made from coca leaves, but it is now commonly a solution of the alkaloid, in a sweet and strongly alcoholic wine. ”

“ It produces more cerebral action than tea or coffee. Johnson, in his “Chemistry of Common Life,” says we may dismiss those fears of the Coca leaf which old Spanish prejudices awakened, and which representations like those of Pöppig have tended to perpetuate in Europe. There is no good reason why it should not be tried among ourselves. That Coca dilated the pupils of the eye was noticed by Von Tschudi. ”

“ Dose.—1⁄2 to 2 drachms.
Coca leaves are exhausted by percolation with proof spirit, the second part of percolate concentrated and dissolved in the first portion, and the strength adjusted so that 1 ounce=1 of leaves; this preparation contains all the properties of the leaf. If freed from the coca wax it is miscible with water and more palatable, and, so purified, if added to port, sherry, or burgundy, in the proportion of half a teaspoonful to a wineglassful (about an ounce to a bottle) , it forms an exhilarating mental stimulant. ”

“ As a beverage to substitute for tea or coffee, a decoction or an infusion of Coca is worthy of attention at the present time. The Indian use of it in moderation seems to prolong life, without much need of sleep or food, or even the desire for these, although in excess it has, no doubt, a degrading effect. A taste for infusion or decoction of Coca or its pharmaceutical preparations is easily acquired; if a good sample of leaves be used it is not even at first disagreeable. ”

“ Both Pöppig and Von Tschudi give a doleful account of the intemperate use of Coca by the inveterate coquero, as he is called,—his bad breath, pale lips and gums, greenish and stumpy teeth, and an ugly black mark at the angles of his mouth, his unsteady gait, yellow skin, dim and sunken eyes encircled by a purple ring, his quivering lips, and his general apathy—all bear evidence of the baneful effects of the Coca when taken in excess. ”

“ The scenery is here remarkably beautiful. Lofty mountains, with their bright cascades, are clothed to their summits with rich grass, while their gullies are filled with flowering trees and shrubs. Half-way up, in many directions, the stone terraces of coca rise tier above tier, fringed with ferns and begonias, and filled with the delicate coloured green coca-branches, diversified occasionally by the darker hues of the coffee. The ravine is filled with masses of purple Melastomaceæ, and the river is fringed with tree-ferns, plantains, and bamboos. ”

“ The uses of the Coca leaf in Bolivia and Peru have been described by many travellers, who have seen it chewed, as has been before mentioned. From two to eight or twelve drachms or more is used daily, in conjunction with the ashes of the quinoa plant or with lime, as a remedy for, or preventive against, the effects of extraordinary physical exertion, to relieve the difficulty of respiration in ascending mountains, and to appease hunger, thirst, and fatigue. ”

“ The Indians who accompanied me on my journey chewed Coca during the whole day; but, evening arrived, they filled their stomachs like fasting men, and I am certain I have seen one devour as much food at a single meal as I should have consumed during two days. The Indian of the Cordillera is like the vulture of his mountains; when provisions abound, he gorges himself greedily; when they are scarce, his robust nature enables him to content himself with very little. The use of Coca assists, it may be, to support the abstinence ”

“ Setting aside all extravagant and visionary notions on the subject, I am clearly of opinion that the moderate use of coca is not merely innoxious, but that it may even be very conducive to health. In support of this conclusion, I may refer to the numerous examples of longevity among Indians who, almost from the age of boyhood, have been in the habit of masticating coca three times a day, and who in the course of their lives have consumed no less than two thousand seven hundred pounds, yet, nevertheless, enjoy perfect health. ”

“ This operation is called acullicar in Bolivia and Southern Peru, and chacchar in the North. They usually perform it three times in a day's work, and every Indian consumes two or three ounces of coca daily.
In the mines of the cold region of the Andes the Indians derive great enjoyment from the use of coca; the running [Pg 238] chasqui, or messenger, in his long journeys over the mountains and deserts, and the shepherd watching his flock on the lofty plains, has no other nourishment than is afforded by his chuspa of coca, and a little maize. ”

“ Coca played an important part in the religious rights of the Incas, and divine honors were paid to it. Even to-day the miners of Peru throw a quid of coca against the hard veins of ore, affirming that it renders them more easily worked; and the Indians sometimes put coca in the mouth of the dead to insure them a welcome in the other world. The alkaloid cocaïne was discovered by Wöhler.
Flowers are nearly confined to the edges of the dense forest, the banks of the rivers and lagunes. There are a greater number of species under the equator, but we have brighter colors in the temperate zone. ”

“ In writing about cocaine, we find that interest lies not so much in itself as in the plant of which it is the alkaloid, the “erythroxylon coca.”
The coca plant is indigenous to Peru, and from the most ancient times, Peruvian Indians have chewed the leaves as a habit, as Indians in this country chew the betel leaf and tobacco. ”

“ If, on the other hand, they desire to use the Coca for the sake of enjoyment, they use it alone, turning it over and over in the mouth, until all its properties are exhausted, then they take more. But, if their purpose is to be inebriated, or to be taken to some extent out of themselves as if by mental alienation, they mix the leaves of Coca with those of Tobacco, and chew and suck them simultaneously; by this means they find themselves with their reason lost to them, and are like drunken [Pg 5] men, and they experience thence very great pleasure. ”

“ Coca has been praised as a nervine and muscular tonic, preventing waste of tissue, appeasing hunger and thirst, relieving fatigue, and aiding free respiration, and as being useful in various diseases of the digestive and respiratory organs. It is said to be specially useful in many forms of asthma, chronic bronchitis, obstinate cough, phthisis, and general debility; in gastric derangements, owing to its slight astringency, it seems to give more tone to the stomach than the mere anæsthetic action of the Cocaine it contains would produce locally ”

“ Coca is also said to cause mental exhilaration, to overcome diffidence or bashfulness in company, and to be an excitant of the vital functions. It has been used in melancholia, in cases of inordinate hunger or thirst, such as occur in some forms of diabetes, and in cases of generative debility. Locally, a solution of the extract in water has been used as a pigment in irritated, inflamed, and granular conditions of the larynx and pharynx. ”

“ To combine such a drug as coca, or cocaine, with an alcoholic stimulant, is to multiply the dangers of cocainism by those of alcoholism. It would be impossible to find terms sufficiently severe in which to condemn the recklessness of those who promiscuously recommend such a compound for all who are overworked or debilitated. One firm actually has the assurance to advertise a preparation of this kind as a remedy for dipsomania. ”

“ Now, since 3 drachms of this coca, or three fluid drachms of its fluid extract, gave the same physiological, or perhaps therapeutical, effect as 3 grains of caffeine, and as the 3 drachms contained about 0.45 grain of cocaine, it follows that cocaine is about 6.5 times more effective than caffeine; but it also follows that the coca accessible, and even the very best coca, contains very much less of its alkaloid than those articles which yield caffeine do of that principle. ”

“ It is not surprising, under such circumstances, that this article should be very much abused, and that the evil of intemperance in the use of Coca, known as coquear, should be quite as prevailing among the natives of those districts as intemperance in the use of tobacco, alcoholic liquors, and opium is among other nations. They intoxicate themselves for several weeks, hide in the deepest forests in order not to be disturbed in their enjoyment, and not rarely return home to their family suffering from delirium or decided idiocy. ”

“ 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 use of this masticatory, which is considered a great delicacy, is not, however, confined to the rich; on the contrary, it is particularly among the hard-working Indians that the Coca enjoys a high reputation as a nutriment and restorative, and its use is considered absolutely essential for the endurance of fatigue and exertion, so that a labourer, in making his contract, has a view not only to wages, but to the amount of Coca to be furnished. ”

“ We have on file upward of 7,000 endorsements from leading practitioners, all coinciding as to the great aid rendered by Vin Mariani as a tonic-stimulant.
[22] It has been repeatedly proven that the many worthless, so-called Coca preparations are nothing more than variable solutions of Cocaine in inferior grades of wines or other liquids, shamefully prepared by unscrupulous or ignorant persons, whereby, in addition to the harmful effects they produce, also bring into discredit a really useful drug. ”

“ All the mountain Indians, [10] Von Tschudi states, are addicted more or less to the practice of masticating Coca. Each man consumes, on an average, between [Pg 11] an ounce and an ounce and a half per day, and on festival days about double that quantity. The owners of mines and plantations allow their labourers to suspend their work three times a day for the chacchar or masticating operation, which usually occupies upwards of a quarter of an hour; and after that they smoke a paper cigar, which they allege crowns the zest of the Coca mastication. ”

“ Richard Gibbs, U.S. minister to Bolivia, for some years resident at La Paz, gives a similar account to that of Weddell of the cultivation of Coca at the present day. [29] He says the consumers of Coca, both in Peru and in Bolivia, are the native races; the whites seldom use it, except as an infusion, and then the first water is thrown away as being too strong. The habitual consumers of it know nothing of toothache, and have their teeth in good condition to a great age. ”

“ It is pretty safe to say that nineteen-twentieths of the coca seen in this market within the past two years must be almost inert and valueless, yet all is sold and used, and its reputation as a therapeutic agent is pretty well kept up. At least many thousands of pounds of the brown ill-smelling leaf, and of preparations made from it, are annually sold. And worse than this, considerable quantities of a handsome looking green leaf, well put up and well taken care of, have been sold and used as coca, when wanting in nearly all its characteristics. ”

“ More than ten million pounds are produced annually in Bolivia; so that the annual yield of coca throughout South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Pasto, may be estimated at thirty million pounds.
It is scarcely pleasant news for us to learn that the natives who cultivate the coca-plant themselves absorb so much of the products of their own cultivation. We have here, doubtless, the explanation of the costliness of cocaine and the scarcity of the drug in England. ”

“ Tea made from the leaves has much the taste of green tea, and, if taken at night, is much more effectual in keeping people awake. Applied externally coca moderates the rheumatic pains caused by cold, and cures headaches. When used to excess it is, like everything else, prejudicial to the health, yet, of all the narcotics used by man, coca is the least injurious, and the most soothing and invigorating. ”

“ Yet they were in perfect health. The coca is considered by the Indians to be an antidote to the veta, and Dr Tschudi confirms this by his own experience. Previously to his hunting excursions in the upper regions of the Puna, he used to drink a strong decoction of coca leaves, and found it strengthening and a preservative from the effects of the rarefied atmosphere. So convinced is he of its salubrious properties, that he recommends its adoption in European navies, or at least a trial of its effects during a Polar or some other distant expedition. ”