Coca and its Therapeutic Application

Coca has been known from time immemorial in South America. At the time when Pizarro landed on the Peruvian coast, the leaf of Coca was held in great esteem among the natives; it was considered to be a divine plant, a living representation of the Deity, a fetish of wonderful and supernatural qualities, and the fields where it grew were reverenced as sanctuaries. Not everybody was allowed to make use of it; its use was the privilege of the nobles and of the priests, and among the greatest rewards that the sovereign could give his subjects, the privilege of chewing Coca leaves was most highly esteemed.

However strange such a superstition may appear, it is indisputable, and all authors that have published the account of the conquest of the Indies corroborate it. It will suffice for us to quote the testimony of Joseph Acosta, who says in every letter, of his natural and moral history of the Indies, of the East as well as of the West, published in 1653:

"The Indians esteem it highly, and during the reign of the Incas, the common people were not allowed to use Coca without the permission of the Governor."

The disappearance of the empire of the Incas, far from diminishing the importance of Coca, on the contrary gave a very much greater scope to its popularity. The natives profited by their freedom from the restrictions imposed by the native rulers in regard to the consumption of Coca, and soon the use of this leaf became so common that it has been compared by every one interested in the question to the use of tobacco by us; and, as it has justly been added, without its objections. There is no more likelihood of seeing a smoker embark without his tobacco than an Indian begin work or undertake a journey unless his chuspa (pouch) is full of Coca leaves. Three or four times a day he sits down, takes some leaves, puts them one by one into his mouth and rolls them into an aculio (quid), adding a little llipta (lime), which he takes from his ever-present poporo. The poporo is a little gourd, bored at the mouth on the upper part, in which the Indian keeps his llipta. This llipta is a white powder composed of ashes of vegetables and of calcined shells pulverized, with which the consumers of Coca have been accustomed, from the most remote times, to season their quid. It is, really, an alkaline substance intended to isolate the different principles of the leaf and to make the action of the Coca more prompt.

Among those inhabitants of South America, with whom the use of Coca did not extend to the lower classes until after the reign of the Incas, and who reserved for themselves, as we have seen, the right of chewing the Coca leaves, the consumption of Coca by children is strictly prohibited. They do not indulge in this luxury except in secret, and it appears to them all the sweeter because it is forbidden. But nearly always their breath, charged with the tell-tale odor of Coca, betrays them on approaching their parents, and the latter make them pay for the pleasure which they have stolen, and to which they are not entitled until they are of age, with very severe punishment. Only when they have grown up will they be allowed to chew Coca and to carry the poporo, which they do not relinquish even in the grave.

On coming of age the young Indian is consigned to an old woman, who keeps him a few hours in her hut to initiate him in the mysteries of man's estate.

After this ceremony she gives him the chuspa (Coca pouch), invests him with the poporo and consecrates him a coquero. One should see with what pride the young Indian leaves the threshold of the sacred cabin, which he entered as a child scarcely a few hours before and from which he departs a man, that is to say, carrying the chuspa and the poporo, and able to chew with impunity, before the old people, this precious leaf which had been forbidden him until then.

No happiness is comparable to his! See with what an important air he draws forth the Coca leaves from his chuspa, as he rolls them in his fingers to make a large quid of them, which he carries to his mouth, moistens delightingly with saliva, and places under his jaws and against his cheeks. He is seen holding carefully in his right hand the little stick, the extremity of which he is going to moisten by putting it into his mouth, and which he will dip into the poporo in order that the llipta may adhere to its moistened part.

He carefully carries the part of his little stick covered with llipta to his quid, and thus performs the operation of mixing the alkaline powder with the masticated leaf. It is at this moment that the quid of Coca affords the young adult the most delightful sensation. His jaws munch it slowly, his tongue collects and rolls it up against the left cheek, all the papillæ of his mouth refresh themselves deliciously with the soothing and aromatic juices of the precious leaf, and by the slow and measured motions of deglutition, he carries with delight the precious juice into the pharynx and thence to the stomach. While he is accomplishing this important operation, his eyes swim with beatitude, over his entire countenance is diffused an expression of content and unutterable joy, and his right hand slowly turns the little stick around the upper part of the poporo, where are deposited little by little the particles of llipta and masticated Coca, which on leaving his mouth adhere to its extremity.

The only occupation of the first days of the adult is the much-loved quid of Coca and the encrusting of his gourd, which we cannot do better than compare to the coating of the pipe, with this difference that our confirmed smokers blacken hundreds of their pipes during their existence, while the Indian encrusts only one gourd in his whole life; so that by the thickness of the crust formed around a poporo, it is possible to judge the age of its owner. This crust, which hardly ever exceeds the thickness of a ring on the poporo of a young Indian, ends by reaching the dimension of the pileus of a large mushroom on the poporo of an old man.

The crust is produced by the particles of Coca and llipta mixed with saliva which are deposited little by little about the mouth of the poporo by smearing with the stick.

These deposits are brought about in an almost imperceptible manner. It is only after some months that the surface of the poporo, on which the chewer continually turns the little stick, becomes covered with a hardly perceptible layer of calcareous substance; at the end of two or three years the superimposed layers form a ring which grows larger from year to year, and which finally attains the thickness we have spoken of above.

As we have said before, the Indian never parts with his poporo, let him be awake or asleep, at home or on his travels, the poporo is always attached to his belt. An Indian would part with all he holds most dear in the world, all, except his poporo.

We have the rare and good fortune to possess a poporo, of which we give a picture (fig. 3). It is, we believe, the only specimen existing in Europe. We owe it to the kindness of M. Gauguet, who has made numerous voyages to Colombia, where he has been able to establish so much sympathy among the natives that one of their old chiefs, who was specially indebted, did not fear to depart from all custom and to incur the contempt of his companions, by offering him, as a pledge of friendship, the object to which he attached the greatest value—his poporo![3]

Thus the great importance that an Indian attaches to Coca is easily shown. It should be recognized, moreover, that the first conquerors of the country did not fail to countenance the passion of the vanquished for the national plant. In fact, they quickly recognized that the habit of consuming Coca might become an excellent source of revenue; and Garcillasco de la Véga, a half-breed of the first generation, tells us that in his time a part of the impost was paid to the conqueror in the form of Coca leaves. The benefits which were derived from the traffic in this plant were such that at a certain time the revenues of the bishop and of the canons of the cathedral of Cuzco came from the tithe on these leaves.

There was, moreover, another object in favoring the use of Coca among the Indians. The latter were treated, as is known, as if they were beasts of burden, and their oppressors were not slow to recognize the fact that they furnished much better labor when they consumed Coca.

We shall see, further on, that the recognition of this fact, the correctness of which cannot be disputed, and which served to excite the rapacity of the conquering savages of that time, has become to-day the means of furnishing one of the most valuable aids to contemporary therapeutics.

The particular favor in which the plant was held in the beginning of the conquest, was destined to suffer some disturbance. In the seventeenth century, for example, the religious quibbles regaining the ascendancy in public affairs, some sedate theologians pretended that Coca was an aliment, and that under this name the use of it should be prohibited to young people and before the communion. The question was vigorously contested, and there is no doubt that the consumption of Coca would have sustained a very decided blow had not Prince don Alonzo de la Pina Montenegro declared that the plant contained no alimentary principle. This point we shall presently consider from a scientific point of view.

Although the inhabitants of the Indies attach so much importance to the use of Coca, this product can not be acclimatized in our hemisphere, and our fathers who took up the use of tobacco with so much eagerness remained indifferent to Coca. Perhaps this indifference should be attributed to the exaggerations of the first importers, who coming to Europe still imbued with the legends gathered in the New World ascribed supernatural qualities to the new plant. The exaggeration of these statements soon became apparent. From this it was only a step to a denial even of its existence. And thus, for more than two centuries, we were deprived of the advantages to be derived from the judicious use of the plant.

It should not be believed, however, that the various writers during these two centuries remained entirely silent regarding Coca. The study of the properties of the plant was still a field of research for a number of learned men, small, it is true, but they well knew that side by side with fiction, which they rejected, there was a reality that it were better to accept.

We further observe, that Claude Duret, a magistrate of Moulins, who wrote a book, printed in 1605, on The Marvellous and Wonderful Plants in Nature, mentions Coca as one of the most worthy to figure in his colleccion.

Nicholas Monardes in the General History of Plants, published in Lyons in 1653, calls attention likewise to the properties of Coca.

In the seventeenth century, l'abbé Longuerue, who was a theologian, an historian, and a philologist, speaking of the Spanish colonies in South America, says, in regard to the mines explored in Peru: "The negroes can not work in the mines, they all die. Hardly any but the natives are able to endure this labor, and then it is necessary to relieve them frequently and that they should chew Coca, without which the quicksilver vapors would kill them."

Linnæus says that Coca possesses: "the penetrating aroma of vegetable stimulants, the astricting and fortifying virtues of an astringent, the antispasmodic qualities of bitters, and the mucilaginous nutritive properties of analeptics or of alimentary plants. This leaf," he continues, "exhibits with energy its action on all parts of the animal economy: Olido in nervos, sapido in fibras utroque in fluido."

Father don Antonio Julian wrote: "This plant is a preventive against many diseases, a restorative of lost strength, and is capable of prolonging human life. It is sincerely to be regretted that so many poor families do not possess this preventive of hunger and thirst; that so many employees and laborers should be deprived of this means of maintaining their strength in the midst of continuous toil; that so many old and young men engaged in the arduous task of study and the accomplishment of their undertakings are unable to derive the beneficial results of this plant to guard against the exhaustion of the vital spirits, debility of the brain, and weakness of the stomach, which are frequent results of continuous study."

Böerhaave (Inst. phys. § 68), states that: "the saliva charged with all the bitter and mucilaginous principles of Coca carries to the stomach, in addition to vital strength, a veritable nutritive which, digested and converted into an abundant and nutritious chyle, enters into the circulation and is converted into the material necessary to sustain the human economy."

We shall not stop to quote the different writings of observers who have interested themselves in Coca. It may be inferred from the preceding statements that Coca possesses this particular character, viz., of enabling those who make use of it to withstand the greatest fatigue. Men employed in hard work in mines, couriers obliged to traverse mountainous countries difficult of travel without being able to take much rest, in a word, persons subject to overwork in every way, all agree in recognizing the strengthening and nerve-fortifying action of Coca. It supports them, economizes their forces, prevents their succumbing to lassitude—in short, augments their vitality.

When the Indian has a good supply of Coca he undertakes, without the slightest fear, the most difficult and longest voyages, even into fever-stricken countries.

When he passes before an apachecta (a quadrangular mound which the natives raise on the sides of the roads at certain points for a halting-place), the Indian divests himself of his wraps, takes his quid of Coca from his mouth, always after having previously exhausted it, and, in order to draw down upon it the blessing of Pachacamac, their sovereign master of the world, he throws it against the consecrated hillock. Thus, that which particularly characterizes these kinds of tumuli are the green splashes of Coca with which they are literally covered.

The name of coqueros is given to the chewers of Coca. It seems that this plant procured for them dreams like those to which hachisch gives rise.

In native therapeutics, this plant is used to dress ulcers and all kinds of sores. The Indians also use it to combat asthma, jaundice, colic, etc.

Coca is consumed chiefly in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil. Since 1863—the time from which our first efforts to popularize it date—its use has rapidly become general, and it may be stated that to-day it is known and used in all civilized countries.

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Now that we understand the physiological properties of Coca and Cocaine, we come to the study of the different morbid states in which these substances may be usefully employed.

Gazeau advises the use of Coca for inflammations of the mouth and gums. Pain is assuaged, ptyalism removed, and the inflammation itself favorably influenced. He cites, in support of his opinion, the use which the Peruvians make of it in affections of the mouth, and mentions cases of mercurial stomatitis treated with this agent and cured in a short time, in his practice.

Demarle[14], before him, expressed himself thus: "I have used Coca for mercurial stomatitis. The affection disappeared on the third day of treatment; nothing else had been administered."

In cases where the gums are soft, fungous, ulcerated, or bleeding, and these changes depend on local or constitutional conditions, Coca is equally indicated. Gazeau prefers it even to potassium chlorate.

According to Dr. Colombe[15], Coca is a potent factor in the treatment of syphilis.[16] "It is demonstrated that potassium iodide and potassium chlorate undergo double decomposition in the system, and thus interfere with each other's action. Coca, substituted for the chlorate under such circumstances, would not be open to the same objection. It would find its application, therefore, when the mixed treatment is found necessary."

As regards the anginæ, the acute inflammations of the larynx and pharynx, we might repeat what has been said about inflammations of the mouth. In particular, the pain, so violent in certain anginæ, calls for this method of treatment. The same is true of the dysphagia which accompanies them.

Charles Fauvel first recognized the virtues of Coca in the tingling of follicular angina and the laryngeal pains of tuberculous subjects. In those cases he specifies Mariani's extract of Coca leaves in preference to solutions of Cocaine, which sometimes give rise to symptoms of poisoning.

Dr. Rouquette[17] relates a case of tubercular laryngitis in which symptoms of poisoning showed themselves as early as the third day; the parts had been painted twice a day with a five-per-cent solution of Cocaine.

Dr. Paul Legendre has quite recently mentioned anew the danger that may result from a too free use of Cocaine[18]. The case was that of an interne of the hospitals attacked with diphtheria who, in order that he might the better bear the spraying with caustics, had his throat painted with a solution of Cocaine. Toward the seventh day he experienced very grave symptoms of poisoning, and the painting had to be suspended.

It is better, in cases of this sort, to prescribe extract of Coca, which answers the same purposes without the attendant danger of Cocaine.

One of the greatest triumphs of extract of Coca is assuredly its action in dysphagia and in the vomiting of consumptives, as also in the vomiting of pregnancy. The first two complications are of the gravest kind, for they condemn to starvation patients whose only chance of safety lies in the activity of the digestive organs (Ch. Fauvel and Coupard).

Authors who have given attention to Coca speak very highly of its employment in gastralgia and tardy and laborious digestion.

Demarle says on this subject: "Personally, I have found the use of Coca, either before or after eating, excellent for gastrodynia and pyrosis, to which I am subject; hardly have I swallowed the first bit of saliva when the whole unpleasant feeling disappears."

Mantegazza speaks of its use in the same strain. The cephalic congestion which accompanies his digestion is relieved; he can work after eating without feeling any uneasiness.

Dr. Ch. Gazeau (Thèse pour le Doctorat, Paris, 1870, Parent, édit., pp. 61 et seq.) thus sums up the physiological action of Coca: "On the stomach, slight excitation, anæsthesia, and probably an increase of the secretion of gastric juice; on the intestines, an increase of the intestinal secretions, etc. These manifold physiological effects upon the digestive tube unite in a specific action, so to speak, in the numerous functional troubles, so varied and so ill-understood, of the organs that compose it."

The same author cites a great number of cases of this sort in which Coca "has never failed to exert an admirable action, often even marvelous." And he concludes (page 65): "It seems to me useless to bring forward more examples; these are enough to justify this positive general conclusion: Coca is the remedy par excellence for diseases of the digestive tube."

Beugniès-Corbeau[19] prescribes it in chloro-anæmia, not only for gastralgia, but for the frequent desire to eat which patients feel, disappearing as soon as the first mouthful has been taken, only to return a little while afterward.

Prof. O. Réveil ends his article on Coca as follows: "Much remains to be done in the physiological and clinical study of Coca; it is known that it acts on the motor and sensory nervous system. This substance is destined some day to take an important rank in therapeutics."

In irritability and various affections of the cerebral centers, Dr. J. Leonard Corning makes use of Coca, which he prefers to the bromides.

In a very remarkable essay on Erythroxylon Coca, published at Ixelles, in 1885, a perusal of which we urge upon all who are interested in the study of Coca, Dr. A. Feigneau says (page 61):

"There can be no mistake that, to a certain extent, Coca stimulates the cerebra-spinal activity by suspending or retarding the destruction of tissue in the economy, and that its action may modify the functions of the nervous centers, provided there are no such contra-indications to its use as active congestion, inflammation, or organic changes in these organs."

"Consequently it would be indicated under all circumstances where a nervous affection seemed to depend upon a state of ataxia."

"In irritations of the spinal cord, in mental aberration accompanied by melancholia, as well as against idiopathic convulsions (Mantegazza) and nervous paraplegia."

Dr. Beverley Robinson considers the Vin Mariani as a cardiac tonic[20]:

"On several occasions, when digitalis has proved to be useless or injurious, I have had very excellent results from caffeine or convallaria. Certainly, the latter drug is more easily tolerated by a sensitive stomach than digitalis is; and whenever the nervous supply of the heart is especially implicated, I believe that I secure more quieting effects from its employment. Among well known cardiac tonics and stimulants for obtaining temporary good effects, at least, I know of no drug quite equal to Coca. Given in the form of wine or fluid extract, it does much, at times, to restore the heart-muscle to its former tone. I have obtained the best effects from the use of Mariani's wine. From personal information given me by this reliable pharmacist, these results are attributable to the excellent quality of the Coca leaves and of the wine which he uses in its manufacture."

In cases of morphinomania, Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz has pointed out the advantage to be obtained with the Vin Mariani, and, following him, Dr. Palmer, of Louisville, and Dr. Sigmaux Treux, of Vienna, have obtained excellent results with this therapeutic agent. Further on, we give a case of Dr. Villeneuve's, showing the cure of a morphinomaniac by the combined use of the Vin and the Pâte (Mariani).

Dr. H. Libermann recommends the use of Coca, in the form of Vin Mariani, against morphinomania, nicotinism and alcoholism.

"In general diseases it is to the stimulating properties of the plant that recourse is oftenest had. These properties make it the tonic par excellence whenever the object is to build up a system that has been enfeebled from any cause. Its preparations, accordingly, may be ordered in convalescence from all grave fevers, in anæmia and chloro-anæmia, in all diathetic or cachætic conditions, whatever may have been their original cause (chronic rheumatism, gout, genito-urinary affection, cancer, etc.), in short, in all cases where the system is debilitated from any cause whatever."

But it is, above all, in diseases that have a depressing action on the nervous system that the effect of Coca is truly marvelous. Gubler, in his Commentaires de thérapeutique, shows himself its warm champion. "Coca," says he, "very much like tea and coffee, lends to the nervous system the force with which it is charged, after the manner of a fulminate, but with this difference, that it yields it gradually and not all at once."

The theory of the fulminates, invented by M. Gubler, tallies so well with observed facts, that Mantegazza, without generalizing and without pretending to form a theory, but limiting himself to describing by simile what he had seen, truer probably than he himself supposed, said: "Under the influence of Coca, it seems that a new force is gradually introduced into our organism, like water into a sponge." (A. Dechambre.)

This opinion has been corroborated by all authors who have given attention to the question, and it may be looked upon as one of the least contestible in therapeutics.

We will add, what is quite important, that as a tonic Coca has been found far superior to cinchona, iron, strychnine, etc. Everybody knows their astringent action, which makes them give rise to such obstinate constipation that there are patients in whom it is often necessary to suspend their use. There is no such objection to Coca; it never constipates, and practically its use may be continued indefinitely.

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Immediately after the importation of the Coca leaf into Europe, we conceived the plan, the outcome of the request of many physicians, of making preparations from Coca. Vin Mariani.—Elixir Mariani.—Pâte Mariani.—Thé Mariani.—Pastilles Mariani, etc. (The author's name was kindly added to his preparations by the medical profession, who had recognized the superiority of his products.)

These different preparations had been used by our greatest practitioners long before the discovery, or rather the application of Cocaine.

The results obtained were marvelous, and the innumerable letters which were addressed to us by physicians who experimented with and used our products and rendered accounts in the medical journals in all parts of the world, would fill several large volumes.[21]

Under the esteemed patronage of our greatest medical celebrities, our preparations are known all over the world; they have reached all classes of society and everywhere, in the large cities as in the small villages, men, women, children, in fact, convalescents of all ages now know the name of the salutary plant, which it is and has been our effort to popularize, though strictly so according to the code of medical ethics and by those channels approved of by the entire medical profession.

We shall now consider the different ways in which we use Coca, and which under the well-known forms of vin, élixir, pâte, and of thé Mariani, have received such universal recognition. We will show incidentally the esteem in which these preparations are held by the highest medical authorities.

This is the first of the preparations of Coca and the one most generally adopted; to the tonic and stimulant action of the drug there is added that of a choice quality of wine.

Vin Mariani contains the soluble parts of the Coca plant. The combination of Coca, with the tannin and the slight traces of iron which this wine naturally contains, is pronounced the most efficacious of tonics.

The fresh Coca leaves that we employ, after careful selection, come from three different sources and are of incomparable quality. It is this that gives to our wine that special taste and agreeable aroma which renders it so acceptable to the sick.

It is likewise to the combination and preparing of these three varieties of Coca leaf in our wine that we can attribute this important fact: during more than thirty years, no matter in how large doses taken, Vin Mariani has never produced cocainism, nor any other unpleasant effects.[22]

Vin Mariani is a diffusible tonic, the action of which is immediate. This action, instead of being localized on a single organ, the stomach, spreads to the whole system. Taken into the circulation, it awakens in its course the retarded functions of every organ, and this is owing to the presence in our preparation of the volatile principles of the plant.

Unlike other tonics, the astringent properties of which lead at length to heat and constipation, Vin Mariani does not produce any disorder of the digestive functions; it stimulates them, exerts a refreshing action on the gastric mucous membrane, and on that account so advantageously replaces the preparations of cinchona, iron, strychnine, etc.

"There is," says Dr. Mallez, "a form of anæmia to which the attention of physicians has not yet been called, and which yields marvelously to the employment of Vin Mariani; we allude to that state of profound depression of the economy, of extremely marked impoverishment of the blood, which also results from the prolonged abuse of balsamics in the treatment of diseases of the urinary passages.

"The number of persons who, attacked with blennorrhagia, use cubebs, copaiba, turpentine, etc., to a deplorable extent is considerable. So true is this that, out of a hundred young dyspeptics, we may affirm without fear of being in error that at least forty of them have become so by the use of balsamics.

"In like manner, the number of patients affected with urinary gravel whom the prolonged and excessive use of the agents just mentioned, has rendered dyspeptic and then neuropathic is enormous. Like the former, they owe the profound disorder of their digestive functions to the immoderate use of resins and oleo-resins.

"It is of the first importance, therefore, to relieve these persons by making them take, after having given them light laxatives and some preparations intended to strengthen the stomach, not iron, not cinchona, not, as we have said above, local tonics, which would be of little if any use, but diffusible tonics, that is to say, those that act upon the local condition and at the same time upon the general condition, and which, moreover, do not constipate.

"It is here that Vin Mariani, proves its great advantage and succeeds where other tonics have failed, in stimulating the functions of the stomach. On the one hand by the small quantity of tannin which it contains, on the other through the active principles of Coca, associated with the wine, which serves as a vehicle, exciting the vitality of each organ separately, not, however, without having previously exerted its vivifying action on the mucous membrane of the stomach itself." (Gazette des Hopitaux, Nov. 23, 1877.)

The analgesic properties of Vin Mariani have received a happy application in clinical laryngoscopy by Dr. Ch. Fauvel. This eminent specialist has made use of it for the past twenty-six years with unvarying success in all affections of the laryngeal mucous membrane, the air passages, and the vocal organs. In granular angina it takes the place of the topical medication and cauterizations which are so often injurious when they are used indiscriminately and to excess.

The employment of Vin Mariani rapidly relieves patients of the feeling of heat and tingling which is one of the most annoying symptoms of this very common disease of the throat. (Gazette des Hopitaux, May 12, 1877.)

Dr. Beverley Robinson recommends Vin Mariani as a heart tonic.

Dr. W. H. Pancoast says that Vin Mariani is a valuable preparation and a tonic of the highest merit.

Dr. Jules Bouvyer, of Cauteretz, employs it with success in certain affections of the larynx as an adjuvant to the sulphurous treatment.

In 1875, in his Traitement rationnel de la phthisie pulmonaire, Dr. de Pietra Santa said, page 394:

"Among the most renowned practitioners of Paris, Péan, Barth, G. Sée, and Cabrol have promptly adopted the preparations of Coca. Ch. Fauvel prescribes it in affections of the respiratory passages. It is in these diseases that I, too, have had occasion to advise its daily use in the most convenient, the most agreeable, and the most active form—that of the Vin Tonique de Mariani."

Thus has been realized Réveil's prediction: "This substance (Coca) is destined to take an important rank in therapeutics."

In the Revue de Thérapeutique médicaux-chirurgicale, June 11, 1876, page 381. Bibliographie: Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des sciences médicales, par A. Dechambre, Dr. H. Cottin thus closes his article:

"In France, we are using a great deal of Coca wine, and it is tending to take the place of all other tonic wines; it is borne a longer time by the stomach and is more agreeable to the palate. M. Mariani has contributed much to the popularization of Coca by the perfection of his preparations, vin, thé élixir and pâte. These are the forms at present most employed."

Dr. Chapusot, of Paris, thus sums up his personal observations: "A claret-glass of this wine has always been enough to make me forget hunger and to sustain my strength; I have felt a grateful warmth and a general exaltation of the economy; the digestion of the following meal has always been easier than if I had not taken the Vin Mariani, and, although I had not such a ravenous appetite as if I had gone without it, I ate a good deal, the stomach appearing stronger and more active."

It was Dr. Ch. Fauvel who gave our wine the very striking and exact title of "Tensor of the vocal cords." He says: "Thanks to Vin Mariani, I have been able to restore the voice of many lyric artists who would have been unable without this potent agent to give their performances."

Dr. J. Leonard Corning, in Brain Exhaustion, New York, 1884, pages 78 and 112, says: "Of all the medicaments that I employ in the very numerous cases of irritability, Vin Mariani has rendered the greatest service. I do not except even the bromides, for this preparation of Coca possesses the calmative properties of those salts without producing the unpleasant depression which characterizes them."

The same author continues:

"The Vin Mariani is the remedy par excellence for ennui. At the same time it produces a fortifying action on the cerebral center and gives rise to a decided sensation of well-being."

Dr. Morell Mackenzie, London, advises the Vin Mariani as a stimulant and tonic, and uses it especially with speakers and singers.

Professor Sajous, of Philadelphia, who has experimented with Vin Mariani in troubles of the vocal organs, has obtained excellent results from its use, and he advises it, not only as a restorative of the voice, but as a general tonic.

Dr. Libermann, Surgeon-in-Chief, French Army, communicates his experience, as follows:

Dr. Villeneuve, among other cases of morphinomania conquered by the combined use of the pâte and the Vin Mariani, communicated to us in 1884 the following observation:

We will conclude our quotations, already too numerous, with an article by Dr. Scaglia, published in 1877 in the Gazette des Hopitaux: "La Coca et ses propriétés thérapeutiques."

Ordinary Dose—Two or three claret-glassfuls daily, half an hour before or immediately after eating.

Coca Grog.—By mixing a wineglassful of Vin Mariani with half a glassful of boiling water, sweetened to the taste, we get a grog of exquisite flavor, and capable of rendering the greatest services whenever an immediate effect is desired in severe cases of cold, attended by convulsive coughing. (As prescribed by Dr. Libermann, Dr. Cyrus Edson and others, recorded in the medical journals during the grip epidemics.)

The Elixir Mariani is more alcoholic, very agreeable to the taste, and three times as highly charged with the aromatic principles of the Coca leaf as the Vin Mariani; therefore it should be taken in doses of a liqueur glassful, in the morning upon rising, and after the two principal meals.

It may be used clear or mixed with water, in nearly all cases where the Vin Mariani is used. Its tonic and eminently digestive properties and its special aroma, at once mild and penetrating, make it an agreeable liqueur, very much esteemed by gourmets and persons who are careful about their health.

A small glass of the Elixir Mariani taken after a meal, spreads a gentle warmth through the stomach and calls forth an abundant secretion of gastric juice, which mixes with the food and facilitates digestion.

For travelers, hunters, and in general all who walk much and who are exposed to fatigue, to dampness, and to fog, the use of the Elixir Mariani may be recommended and will render admirable service, because of the tone and strength that it gives to the stomach and to the muscles.

Dr. Collins, Révue de Thérapeutique, observes that this liqueur acts "heroically" in anæmia, chlorosis and rickets.

Dr. Ch. Fauvel, Dr. Conqueret, Dr. Villeneuve, Dr. Chapusot, Dr. Odin, Dr. Cintrat and others declare as the result of their clinical observations that the Elixir Mariani exerts a "masterly action" in granular pharyngitis, quinsy, and albuminuria, and that its stimulating properties on the whole nervous system cannot be denied.

Dr. J. Leonard Corning, of New York, recommends the Elixir Mariani as a strengthener of the brain.

"As a remedy in sea-sickness, the Elixir Mariani has always given excellent results."—Dr. Slant, Dr. Letellier, Dr. Trossat, Dr. Derrecagaix.

The Elixir Mariani is generally prescribed in doses of a liqueur-glassful after the principal meals. Mixed with cold water, in the proportion of two liqueur-glassfuls to a tumbler of water, it constitutes a very strengthening and pleasant drink.

Tonic and pectoral, Pâte Mariani is a Lozenge very agreeable to the taste, which is prescribed daily with the greatest success by throat specialists for obstinate coughs, granular catarrh of the throat, and the various inflammations of the digestive and respiratory passages. Composed only of clarified gum, sugar and Coca, without a trace of opium or of any narcotic substances, it may be taken without danger at any hour of the day and in any quantity, without fear of its disturbing the digestion, since, on the contrary, it can only aid it. From six to ten of the Lozenges daily are the usual dose, but more may be taken if necessary.

Its beneficial action is due to the happy combination of the emolient properties of pure gum-arabic and the tonic, astringent and analgesic properties of Coca.

"Pâte Mariani has a powerful tonic action on the larynx, and, like Vin Mariani, it is invaluable in cases of aphonia caused by feebleness or relaxation of the vocal cords. This property is of special advantage to singers and orators. Pâte Mariani is a very valuable substitute in granular catarrh of the throat and throat affections in general, for chlorate of potassium pastilles and the various lozenges containing opium, etc., the Pâte Mariani is more agreeable to the taste and produces anæsthetic and soothing effects." (Gazette des Hopitaux.)

The Pastilles Mariani are used in the same cases as the Pâte, from which they differ only by the addition of two milligrammes of Cocaine hydrochlorate to each pastille.

Their action is much more intense and more rapid than that of the plain Coca Lozenges.

The paroxysms of cough which are so frequent and so annoying to those who smoke tobacco to excess, are overcome as if by enchantment by the use of a few pastilles.

Dose—Four to eight daily. This amount, however, may be exceeded, at the discretion of the physicians.

As its name indicates, Mariani's concentrated extract of Coca, or Thé Mariani, contains within a small bulk all the active principles of the Coca leaf. This extract, prepared in special apparatuses which prevent all alteration and preserve all its properties and all its aroma, answers entirely in the various modes of using Coca and constitutes a most scrupulously exact preparation in dose, the most convenient and the most active that could be desired.

Thé Mariani is capable of indefinite preservation and easy of transportation; it renders great service to persons who make mountain ascensions, fatiguing marches, or long journeys through unhealthy countries, and in fact in whatever may be called fatiguing work or pleasure.

Thé Mariani may be taken in the dose of from three to six teaspoonfuls in the course of the day, clear, or mixed with brandy, wine, water or milk, etc., hot or cold, in the latter cases sweetened to taste, if desired.

Coca Tea or Infusion.—A teaspoonful of the Thé Mariani, added to a cup of hot water, sweetened to the taste, with or without the addition of cream or milk, makes a very agreeable drink, more digestive, more tonic, and less exciting than coffee or tea, while possessing in a higher degree the tonic and stimulating properties of those two substances.

It is in this form that Coca is especially used in Peru and Bolivia, where it is preferred to the Chinese tea.

Persons who drink Chinese tea at meals may advantageously substitute the Thé Mariani for it.

For patients who cannot generally take milk, it is advisable to add Thé Mariani. Excellent results will be obtained.

Coca Gargles and Sprays.—Independently of its tonic and reconstituent action, Coca possesses anæsthetic and soothing properties that have been observed and made use of in practice by laryngologists in the form of a spray, in the proportion of a teaspoonful of Thé Mariani to half a glassful of warm water.

An ambulance physician of Tonkin, who has experimented with Thé Mariani, sends the following note:

"Thé Mariani has rendered us real service during expeditions as well as in hospital practice; on the march it makes with boiled water, with or without the addition of sugar, a very agreeable, tonic and stimulating drink; a veritable reserve food, it takes the place of alcoholic drinks and insufficiency of food, and aids the men in bearing the most distressing fatigue. The water of swamps, rivers or ditches, mixed with a few spoonfuls of Thé Mariani, could be drank without any inconvenience, and assuaged thirst.

"Thé Mariani stimulates the appetite, overcomes atony of the digestive organs, and prevents and combats diarrhœa efficiently.

"Mixed in small quantity with fresh or condensed milk, it gives it an agreeable taste and causes it to be borne by the most delicate stomachs; hence it becomes a valuable adjuvant in the treatment of the endemic dysenteries and diarrhœas of tropical countries.

"Finally, its exclusive use, even its excessive use for several days, has not seemed to us to exert any injurious influence on the system, as the abuse of coffee or of alcoholic drinks had certainly done under like circumstances."

Dr. Fordyce Barker, Dr. J. H. Douglas, Dr. Henry B. Sands and Dr. Geo. F. Shrady have authorized us to make known that it was due to Thé Mariani, added to milk (in the proportion of a teaspoonful of the Thé to a cup of milk), that they were able to nourish Gen. Grant, the ex-President, when he was unable to support any other food. By this means they succeeded in prolonging the life of their illustrious patient for several months.

Coca taken in infusion gave excellent results to Tschudy while he was sojourning in the valley of the Puna, the highest in Bolivia, which has given its name to the disease of mountain sickness, known in Peru by the name Mal de Puna, also designated by the words sorroche, veta and mareo; this last term shows clearly enough the analogy which exists between sea-sickness and the influence of great altitudes on the human body. Experience has proved the usefulness of Coca against dyspnœa and vomiting, so that the Indians who make ascensions always carry a stock of Coca with them. Dr. Tschudy found himself comfortable by the use of it while hunting in those valleys, at a height of ten to twelve thousand feet above the sea.

Dr. Salemi, of Nice, gives an account of a case of epilepsy in a woman, 38 years of age, cured by the daily and prolonged use of Thé Mariani, given in increasing doses (ten drops daily at first and eighty drops daily at the end of a month). This case is not an isolated one.

Owing to the success obtained by our preparations of Coca for many years, imitators and counterfeiters have dared to apply to their own valueless productions the observations made with our special products. These occurrences, often repeated, have given rise to protests from many physicians, among others Dr. W. Oliver Moore, Sir Morell Mackenzie, Dr. Ch. Fauvel.

⁂ We have taken the trouble to compare the report of Dr. Moore's remarks with the little book on Coca prepared by M. Mariani, and with the circulars issued by a number of manufacturers of Coca preparations; and we certainly think that some of these manufacturers have taken an unwarrantable liberty in appropriating work that evidently cost M. Mariani a good deal of time and no little outlay of money.—Editor N. Y. Medical Journal.

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Continued compliment is paid M. Mariani for the maintained high standard and excellence of his preparations, by the numerous honorable mentions and indorsements by the members of the medical profession and those who have occasion to use his Coca preparations; latterly through the following awards:

Gold Medal and Silver Medal from the Académie Nationale de France; Gold Medal and a Grand Diploma of Honor from the Wine Exhibit of Bordeaux, France; Gold Medal and a Diploma of Honor at the Hygienic Exhibit at Amsterdam, Holland, and a Gold Medal and Diploma at Leamington, England, the jury surnaming his Vin Mariani, "Wine for Athletes."

N. B.—Professional bicyclists and athletes, after careful trials of ours and preparations of others, among which the Cafeine. Theobromine, Kola, pseudo-Cafeine or Kolamine (Knebel), Maté, etc., invariably give the preference to our Coca preparation. Messrs. Dubois, Lucas, Vigneaux, Echalié, André Henry, Imans, Buffel, and many others have attested to the vast superiority of Coca Mariani over all other tonics (dynamogéniques).

We request those physicians, who kindly place confidence in our preparations, to prescribe them under the name of Mariani, and to insist that their prescriptions be scrupulously executed.

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TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A YOUNG BRANCH; PRIMARY FORMATIONS.

(See Plate III., Figure 3.)

• Ec., Bark formed of an epidermis Ep., of a parenchyma (pulp) well developed with some oxaliferous cellules C. o. On the section is seen a bundle of libero-ligneous stipulaires F. s.
• F. p., Fibres pericycliques.
  
• Li., Liber, with oxaliferous cellules C. o.
  
• B., Wood.
  
• Mo., Pulpy pith containing cellules of ligneous dotted partitions C. l., and oxaliferous cellules. The cortical and medullary pulp contain in their cellules numberless grains of starch, which are not indicated in this plate.

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Fig. 1—TRANSVERSE SECTION OF AN AGED STEM; SECONDARY FORMATIONS.

Fig. 2—LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF SAME STEM.

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Fig. 1—TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A PRIMARY ROOT.

• A. p., Heaped layer.
• A. s., Corky layer.
• Ec., Pithy bark.
• End., Endoderm; the thickening of the lateral partitions of its cellules is very apparent.
• P., Pericycle formed of a single layer of cellules.
• T. c., Conjunctive tissue or pith.
• B., Ligneous fasciculous; there are two to the diameter.
• L., Liberian fasciculous; there are two to the diameter, perpendicular to the preceding.

Fig. 2—TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A ROOT; SECONDARY FORMATIONS.

• L. s., Cork, secondary.
• Ec. s., Bark, secondary; the primary formations are exfoliate.
• L., Liber.
• F. l., Ligneous fibres in large numbers and meatus.
• V., Veins of wood, dotted.
• R. m., Medullary radius.
• M. s., Pith which has become entirely sclerotic.

Fig. 3—SCHEMATIC SECTION OF A YOUNG BRANCH.

• Ec., Bark.
• F. f., Foliated fasciculous not yet separated from the central cylinder.
• F. s., Fasciculous stipulaire.
• Mo., Pith.
• Z. g., Generating zone libero-ligneous.

Fig. 4—GRAINS OF STARCH OF THE SEED.

(Maximum dimensions: 22 to 24 p. × 15 to 18 p.)

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Fig. 1—FOLIATION. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A LEAF NOT YET UNROLLED, SHOWING THE TWO LONGITUDINAL JUTTINGS WHICH FORM THE FALSE NERVURES OF THE COCA LEAF.

• F. i., Lower surface.
• F. S., Upper surface.
• N. p., Principal nervure.
• F. n., False nervures.

Fig. 2—TRANSVERSE SECTION OF ONE OF THE JUTTINGS.

• E. s., Upper epidermis.
• E. i., Lower epidermis.
• F. n., False nervure.

Fig. 3—LOWER EPIDERMIS OF THE LEAF AT THE FALSE NERVURE F. n., WHICH IS FORMED OF LENGTHENED CELLULES WITHOUT STOMATUM S., STOMATUM P., EPIDERMIC PAPILLOUS CELLULES.

Fig. 4—TRANSVERSE SECTION OF A LEAF ENTIRELY DEVELOPED.

• E. s., Upper epidermis.
• E. i., Lower epidermis.
• P., Parenchyme foliate.
• C. p., Palissadique cellules.
• C. s., Sclerotic cellules.
• L. a., Air-conveying cell.
• F. l. l., Fasciculous libero-ligneous.

Fig. 5—SCHEMATIC SECTION OF A PETIOL NEAR THE BASE.

Fig. 6—EXTREMITY OF A BRANCH SHOWING THE STIPULES OF THE LEAVES.

Fig. 7—TWO STIPULES CONNECTED, SEEN FROM THE BRANCHED SURFACE.

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Fig. 1—RIPE SEED; THE THREE STYLES AND THE STAMENS ARE STILL ADHERENT.

Fig. 2—LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF SAME.

• T. g., Tegument of the seed.
• A., Amylaceous albumen.
• R., Embryo rootlet.
• C., Cotyledons.

Fig. 3—SCHEMATIC SECTION OF THE HALF-DEVELOPED SEED.

• P. c., Carpellary pulp.
• C. a., Abortive carpelle.
• T. o., Tegument ovarium.
• A. a., Amylaceous albumen.
• C. e., Embryo cotyledons.
• N. t., Nervure of tegument of the ovule.

Fig. 4—TRANSVERSE SCHEMATIC SECTION OF A COTYLEDON.

Fig. 5—FLORAL BUD.

Fig. 6—AN EXPANDED FLOWER.

Fig. 7—THE SAME, SEEN FROM UNDERNEATH.

Fig. 8—TWO PETALS, ONE SEEN FROM UNDERNEATH, THE OTHER SEEN SIDEWAYS AND SHOWING THE APPENDIX WHICH FORMS THE CROWN.

Fig. 9—THE ATTACHED 10 STAMENS; THE EPIPETALS ARE LARGER THAN THE EPISEPALS.

Fig. 10—AN ANTHER AND THREAD OF STAMEN.

Fig. 11—POLLEN SEEDS.

(Dimensions: 35 p. × 28 p.)

Fig. 12—STYLE AND STIGMATE.

Fig. 13—FLORAL DIAGRAM.

The floral formula is: [5 S] + 5 P + [10 E] - [3 C].

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We are justified in saying: Never has anything been so highly recommended and every trial proves its excellence.

"Mariani Bottle," showing Shape and Label.
Size of Regular Bottle, half litre (about 17 ounces).

"Mariani Bottle," showing Outside Wrapper.
Never sold in bulk—to guard against substitution.

VIN MARIANI

Nourishes    =    Fortifies

Refreshes

Aids Digestion    =    Strengthens the System.

Unequaled as a tonic-stimulant for fatigued or overworked Body and Brain.

Prevents Malaria, Influenza and Wasting Diseases.

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