FliBRUAKV 



>88 S .j 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



629 



as the higher; but this did not hold good in the United 

 Stairs, as some of these lower grades appeared to contain 

 no alkaloid at all, while others contained too little to work 

 with any advantage by so expensive a,proeess or prooessea 

 So it became necessary to adhere to the young, green 

 coca as the best that could be had. 



Of all the processes thus far tried, none have been at 

 all satisfactory, and others are still being sought out, but 

 that of W. Lossen, of 1882, as-given in GmelinV Handbook, 

 English edition, vol. xvi., p. 300, seemed to be the best 

 thus far, when modified in some of the details, t p to 

 this time, however (November 19), nothing like the proper 

 amount lias been obtained from the coca, and the small 

 return for so much expense and labour is so discouraging 

 that if a reasonable supply from abroad could be reason- 

 ably excepted within a short time, it would be abandoned. 



As it is, however, the writer still hopes to produce it when 

 better coca can be obtained, and thinks there may possibly, 

 be cheaper solvents found for it than alcohol, ether or 

 chloroform. Where such large quantities of a substance 

 have to he exhausted for so small a result as 8 to 12 

 grains to the pound, and the alkaloid so sensitive and so 

 easily decomposed, there' is no wonder that it requires great 

 skill to prevent its being lost in the large amount of 

 extractive matter. Something like an alkaloid is always 

 obtained by all the processes, but it often proves to contain 

 very little or no cocaine. 



Merck's hydrochlorate of cocaine came in the form ot 

 a damp, amorphous, granular powder of a rather dusky 

 white colour,— several shades off from being colourless. It 

 has a peculiar ethereal odour, and a mildly bitter taste, 

 the taste being very promptly succeeded by a benumbing 

 sensation. It is soluble in strong alcohol, but not appreci- 

 ably soluble in strong ether. A gram of the salt gives 

 3S7o grains, or a little more than seven fluid drachms of 

 4 per cent solution. This solution is opalesee nt or turbid, 

 and requires filtering, leaving several milligrams of insol- 

 uble matter on the filter, and the filtrate is not colourless, 

 but of a greenish-yellow tint, and neutral or slightly al- 

 kaline reaction. Of this solution 10 c.c. equal to -4 gram 

 of the salt precipitated with solution of carbonate of 

 sodium 1 in 5, gave a white precipitate of the alkaloid 

 oocaine, which, dried at a low temperature, weighed almost 

 exactly ;: gram, or three-fourths the weight of the salt 

 taken.' It should yield, according to Gmelin (vol. xvi., p, 

 302), 8878 per cent. The precipitated alkaloid is very sen- 

 sitive to heat, turning brown when dried on a porcelain 

 surface hardly above 70° C. Authorities state that when 

 precipitated by carbonate of sodium it is not soluble in 

 an excess of the precipitant, This may be ture, but yet 

 a considerable proportion of the alkaloid cau be washed 

 out, by ether, from the mother-liquor from which the al- 

 kaloid has been precipitated by a slight excess of carbonate 

 of sodium. If the carbonate of sodium does not dissolve 

 it, the chloride of sodium, which results from the decomposi- 

 tion of the hydrochlorate of cocaine, does. In the pre- 

 cipitation with carbonate of sodium no carbonic acid is 

 given olf. The alkaloid when pure or nearly so is but 

 slightly soluble in water, but it is quite soluble in water 

 which holds even small proportions of the extractive mat- 

 ters and the salts of the coca leave' It Is Basil} 

 out of alkaline watery solutions, provided there be but 



in.,. otw matter or alkali present— either by ohloro- 



foi-ni o>- ether 1 bid with the substances i"-' mentioned 



1 nt in mi v considerable proportion! an emulsion Is 



formed with both solvents 'Mat no device ■, I tried b is 

 been able to separate, although much time »nd pains have 



been given to the matter. 



The solution of Merck's hydrochlorate 111 distilled Water, 



and ti.i i' a filtered, remains entirely- clear Eortwoor 



three weeks, but some that Is now H month old shOWs the 

 Usual signs of microscopic growths. But a solution made 

 11, ill, same time, wherein half the water was replaced l.va 

 cold saturated solution of salicylic acid, remains entirely 

 clear and bright, and judging by analogy and experience 

 with the salts of other alkaloids', it will remain clear in- 

 definitely. The solution ao protected has been frequently 

 Used without discoverable irritation, and from these cir- 

 cumstances it follows that all solutions of salts of cocaine 

 should be so protected from change, 



I ,-iiiu what has been said it appears that a 1 per cent 

 solution of Merck 1 1> hydrochlorate eontains only about 3 



per cent of the alkaloid, or 3'41 per cent of the hydro- 

 chlorate of the alkaloid, and vet this solution appears to 

 be quite strong enough for all ordinary uses to which it 

 has been applied up to the present time. Many ophthalmo- 

 logists appear to have .succeeded well with a 2 per cent 

 solution, but they do not mention tin- quantities of this 

 solution used, and it is inferred, from seine experience 

 communicated by Dr. O. S. Bull, that the quantities used 

 must have been larger than he used, and if by this there was 

 any loss of solution by overflow, or much loss of time in waiting 

 for the anaesthesia, and especially if the anaesthesia was not 

 complete, then there is no economy in the smaller cost of a 2 

 per cent solution. From all the experience up to the present 

 time it seems probable that a 4 per cent solution is the best, 

 and the only one needed, as it appears to lie strong enough to 

 produce complete anaesthesia with quantities so small as not to 

 involve waste by overflow, or unnecessary loss of tune. 

 Abundant experience has shown that in all ordinary 

 eases of eye operations the instillation of two drops 

 into eye, and, after waiting ten minutes, three drops 

 more, will in ten minutes after the second instillation, 

 give an amesthesia which will continue complete for about 

 ten minutes, and pass off in about twenty minutes, 

 leaving no irritation or other bad effects. Doubtless weaker 

 solutions will be required for therapeutic purposes, but 

 these can be easily made extemporaneously from the strong- 

 er one. Use has been made of both a 2 per cent and 

 1 per cent solution in painful conditions of the eye with 

 entire relief, but the applications have to be frequently 

 renewed, as the effects pass away rather rapidly. Such 

 solutions are of course very easily made from a 4 per 

 cent solution as needed, without any necessity for keep- 

 ing more than the one stock solution. 



The effects of cocaine as a local aiuesthetic are wonder* 

 ful, and it is still more wonderful that these effects should 

 not have been before discovered. There have been several 

 independent investigations of its physiologlca land tberapeut« 

 ic effects. It has often been dropped in the eye, and 

 its mydriatic effect was well known. It had also been 

 used for spraying the fauces iu laryngology to lessen the 

 sensitiveness to the use of instruments, anil its discoverer, 

 Niemann, and many since have noticed its benumbing 

 effects upon the tongue; but it remained for Koller to 

 discover its effects as a local anesthetic, and thus withiu 

 a week's time to raise it from an obscure position iu 

 the list of useless alkaloids to an importance and utility 

 hardly exceeded iu materia medica. It had been repeatedly 

 given both internally and hypodermically, and found to 

 require large doses often repeated, to produce any ap- 

 preciable effect. One grain of it will give complete 

 amesthesia of an eye for ten or fifteen minutes, fifty times, 

 and yet the same quantity taken into the stomach has 

 hardly given an appreciable effect, and this quantity re- 

 presents about 400 grains of good coca. Thus there seems 

 to be very little relation discoverable at present between 

 its general effect on the economy and its local effect. 

 As an agent correctly and properly classed with tea) 

 coffee, guarana, etc., as a nervous stimulant it wan so in« 

 definitein effect — at least when of poor quality— an to lead 

 some close observers to doubt or deny its stimulant 

 action, when now it suddenly comes Into view in the op- 

 posite role of the most powerful nervous sedative ever 

 known short of absolute destruction of tissue, The action 

 of heat, or of chemical cauteries which destroy the tissues, 

 do not more completely obliterate sensation than this agent, 

 and yet it does not appear to interfere, with vitality 

 at all, does not irritate at all either primarily or secondarily, 

 and its profound action appears to be followed by no 

 hurtful reaction- With such a character 00 suddenly 

 acquired, It seems practically to have sprung into existence 

 fully armed for a great amount of future good in the art 

 of medicine. Already it has been applied to many pur- 

 poses, beside those of ophthalmology, and extravagant 

 and improbable statements in regard to its effects are 

 circulated, and it has also, doubtless, been often misapplied, 

 but it is far too well tried to be classed with the doubtful 

 novelties of the time, or have an uncertain importance 

 in the future. The difficulty now is to get it for ap- 

 plication, 



One of the most interesting points in connection with 

 it is, as to what becomes ofitm action, L'nlike atropine 

 and other alkaloids its effgoto are very transknt. Is it 



