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.

    35/90 (page 29)
    — 2i) — rious to the appetite. Indeed, according to |;he statement of all authors, the Indians who pass an entire day without eating, notwithstanding the hardship of forced marches, content themselves with chewing Coca leaves, and eat very heartily in the evening. “The Indians who accompanied me on my voyage,” says Weddel, “chewed Coca leaves all day, neither drinking, eating, nor showing any signs of fatigue. But at evening they replenished their stomachs like men who were com- pletely famished, and I can . assure you that I have some- times seen them devour at one meal more aliment than I could have consumed in two days.” We will see, further • on, that it is in exciting the cerebro-medullary and ner- vous muscular functions, in part, and partly in producing a soothing effect on the mucous membrane of the stomach, that Coca produces these wonderful results in the con- servation of energy without the tortures of hunger, not- withstanding the deprivation of aliment. After this abstract of the well-known and recognized p)roperties of Coca leaves, we will proceed to the medical study undertaken regarding this subject. In 1859 Niemann discovered the active jminciple of the leaves of Coca, to which he gave the name of Cocaine, though, in fact, the discovery of this alkaloid .should be attributed to Gardeke, who had separated it in 1865 under the name of Erythroxyline. The work of Demarle appeared in that same year, on “ The Coca of Peru” (1), in which he pointed out certain prop- erties attributed by him to the alkaloid that the leaves of the plant contained, and which he studied. He remarked, among other things, the dilatation of the pupils, which he had noticed in his own case after having taken a do.se of Coca; the absence of taste for a greater or less length of time after crushing some leaves with his teeth and letting them remain in the mouth.