Coca, cocaine and its salts : their history, medical and economic uses, and medicinal preparations.

  • Martindale, William, 1840-1902.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Coca, cocaine and its salts : their history, medical and economic uses, and medicinal preparations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    young shrubs from the too direct influence of the solar rays, by means of the projection which they form above the level of the soil. “ Where the ground is level, they make, instead of steps or terraces, simple furrows (;uachos) in a straight line, and separated from one another by little walls of well- moulded earth, called umaclias, at the foot of each of which is planted a row of the shrubs, more or less far apart from each other. “ At the end of a year and a half the plant affords its first crop, and from this period to the age of forty years or more it continues to yield a supply. Instances are cited of Coca plantations which have existed for nearly a century, and which still produce. Nevertheless, the greatest abundance of leaves is obtained from plants of from three to six years of age. When the trees run up too much, the produce is less than when they spread; they are therefore pruned in some cases to favour an increase in breadth, which, however, is never considerable, as the foim of the shrub is irregular. The average luight of the wild plant appears to be about 2 metres, but in cultivation it is generally allowed to attain but 1 metre [39 inches], “The flrst. gathering which takes place in a Coca plan- tation is at tne expense of only the lower leaves of the shrubs, and it is therefore called quit a cahon.* The leaves of which this gathering consists are larger and more coriaceous than those of subsequent collections, and also have less flavour. Ttiev are mostly consumed on the spot. All the other gatherings go by the name of mitas, and take place three times, or exceptionally, four times, per annum. The most abundant harvest is that occurring in March, that is, immediately after the rains ; this is the mita de marzo. The most scanty is that which takes place at the end of June or beginning of duly, and which is called mita de San Juan. The third, named mita de Santos, is made in October or November. “ The watering of the Coca plantations greatly increases their productiveness. Forty days are then sufficient, I have been told, for naked shrubs to become covered with new leaves ; but these leaves are not equal in their pro- * From quitar, to take away, and calzon, pantaloon.