Coca and its therapeutic application / by Angelo Mariani.

  • Mariani, Angelo.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Coca and its therapeutic application / by Angelo Mariani. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/90 (page 15)
    which the members of the Society were enabled to ex- amine, excited the most lively curiosity and won the com- mendation of ]\L Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. It was raised from a plant which had been only eighteen months under cultivation.” “In Porto Rico the plant reaches a greater height than in Peru. “ A box filled with beautiful leaves has also been received by Dr. Betances and forwarded to Mr. Mariani. This also came from Monseigneur Mereno. It is therefore evident that the plant can be cultivated in the Antilles and that it may become a source of wealth to that country.” ^ Plantations like this would probably thrive in Corsica or Algeria, countries where the temperature at certain points is somewhat analogous to that of the tropics. It is a fact that this shrub does not attain its complete de- velopment except in countries where the mean temperature is from fifteen to eighteen degrees centigrade. But heat does not suffice; great humidity is also neces- sary to Coca Therefore it is met with principally on the sides of hills and at the bottom of wooded valleys which, abound on both sides of the Cordillieras. Unfortunately^ these regions are rather distant from the coast and thew are, furthermore, devoid of easy means of communication r It IS above all to this particular cause, the difficulty of transportation, that we must attribute the relatively hip-ffi price of Coca leaves. The cultivation of Coca trees is begun by sowing the seed in beds called Almazigos. As soon as the plant ap- pears 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 centi- metres in length by 7 in depth, care being taken that each pffint IS separated from its neighbor by a distance of a