CHAPTER XI
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USE OF COCA AS A RESTORATIVE AND BEVERAGE.
Notwithstanding the scepticism expressed in Weddell’s last sentence quoted (p. 23), and his attributing much of the effects said to be produced by Coca on the Indians to the force of habit, Markham (_Op. cit._) regards it as the least injurious and the most soothing and invigorating of all the narcotics used by man, and Dr. Archibald Smith (“Peru as it is,” London: 1839) states, that Coca, when fresh and good, and used in moderate quantity, increases nervous energy, removes drowsiness, enlivens the spirits, and enables the Indian to bear cold, wet, great bodily exertion, and even want of food, to a surprising degree, with apparent ease and impunity; though it is said, if taken to excess, to occasion tremor in the limbs, and even a gloomy sort of mania. Such dire effects, he considers, must be of rare occurrence, since, after living for years in constant intercourse with persons accustomed to frequent Coca plantations, and with Indian _yanacones_ or labourers, all of whom, whether old or young, masticated the favourite leaf, he never witnessed a single instance in which the chewer was affected with mania or tremor.
Whether, in Europe, it will ever share the field of favour with tea, coffee, and cocoa, and become a common beverage, is doubtful. It certainly is worthy of the attention of students who have a tendency to become drowsy. An infusion, 1 in 50 of distilled water, has a bitterish grass-like taste—much the same flavour as the selected tea supplied at the Chinese kiosk during the Fisheries Exhibition, 1884. It may be taken after meals as a refresher; it is not unpalatable; if sweetened, with milk or a slice of lemon added, or infused with tea, it may be taken as an ordinary cup of tea. The writer finds that a teacupful, taken hot, produces a slight diaphoretic action, quickened circulation, slight fulness in the head, buoyancy of spirits, and wakefulness; on one occasion, taken late, this was succeeded by rather restless sleep. 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. He says, “After partaking of a strong infusion of Coca, or the mastication of a great quantity of it, the eye seems unable to bear light, and there is a marked distension of the pupil, and, when taken to the utmost excess, it never, like opium, causes a total alienation of the mental powers, or induces sleep; but, like opium, it excites the sensibility of the brain, and the repeated excitement occasioned by its intemperate use after a series of years wears out mental vigour and activity.”
Weddell and others, from the sleeplessness induced by an infusion of Coca, thought that it might contain Theine, but neither he nor Professor Frémy were able to isolate it, although he held that an
## active bitter principle, which it had not been possible for them
to obtain in crystals, was contained in the leaves. The isolation, since, of Cocaine, an alkaloid possessing such curious properties, and the accounts of the use of Coca just narrated, show that the effects attributed to it are more than imagination and the “force of habit.” Whether it does more than deceive or lull hunger, thirst, and fatigue, and how it acts in these respects, are subjects still to be investigated. The effect which travellers have noticed it has on the respiration at high elevations cannot be imaginary. Under the influence of Coca, it has been said, it appears that a new force gradually introduces itself into our organism, as water into a sponge. Gubler thinks that as with tea, caffeine, and theobromine, Coca brings to the nervous system the strength with which it is charged in the manner of a _fulminate_, with the difference, that it only yields it slowly, not all at once.
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