February 2, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



623 



chewing it. It is also credited with preventing diffic- 

 ulty of breathiDg iu ascending high mountain. The 

 medicinal qualities attributed to it are numerous. 



Eveiy Indian carries with him a bag of coca leaves 

 and a gourd or calabash with lime and wood ashes. 

 The lime, apart from other properties, piomotes the 

 flow of saliva. Travellers in South America, from 

 Pocpping to Markbam, have been emphatic in their 

 praises of the strengthening properties of coca ; but, 

 like other articles of the same class, it is injurious 

 when taken to excess. Habitual chewers develop 

 symptoms resembling those of confirmed opium-eaters, 

 and are liable to hallucinations similar to those in 

 ilcliriuni tremens, while in extreme cases confirmed 

 idiotcy has supervened. Mild infusions promote diges- 

 tion, while excess leads to congestion of the brain. 

 Dr. Christison of Edinburgh obtained varying results 

 aud Mr. Dowdeswell negative effects from cuca, but 

 the varying qualities of the preserved leaves may ac- 

 count for such varying results. As the gathering and 

 preparation of the leaves are of chief importance, we 

 quote the following passage in full from Dr. Trimen's 

 valuable article : — 



Collection, Preparation, and Commerce. — Much care is taken 

 in the gathering, drying, and preservation of coca, as its 

 activity and value depend in a great measure on its mode 

 of preparation. Some differences in detail occur in the col- 

 lection and preparation of coca in different districts, bvit 

 as a general rule the processes are as follows : — The leaves are 

 gathered as soon as they have arrived at maturity, at which 

 period they are bright-green on their upper surface, and 

 yellowish-green ou their under surface ; and have an agree- 

 able aud somewhat aromatic odour. Th© leaves are gathered 

 separately and carefully by the hand, with the two- 

 fold object of preventing them being crushed or bruised 

 in the process ; aud also so as not to injure the young 

 leaf -buds which are left behind, for the purpose of obtain- 

 ing a second crop of leaves. They are then carried away 

 in baskets, and spread out on paved surfaces, or ou the 

 floors in the courts 'of the houses, or sometimes ou woollen 

 cloths ; and dried slowly in the suu. This operation re- 

 quires great care, tor if the leaves be dried too rapidly, 

 they lose their odour and green colour ; and if stored away 

 before thoyare thoroughly dried their colour isalsochauged, 

 and they acquire a disagreeable odour and taste. In 

 some districts the leaves are occasionally trampled over 

 while they are damp, under the impression, it is said that 

 they thus acquire a delicate flavour aud smell ; but also, 

 probably, to preserve their flatness in the drying process. 

 After being dried, the leaves are either stored in barns 

 or huts ; o r packed iu bags or bales, in which they are 

 pressed by treading, and are thus transported to a dis- 

 tance. These bags or bales (cestos) appear to differ very 

 much in size, their weight being variously given by authors 

 at from 24 to 150 lb. As the properties of coca are in- 

 jured by transportation, aud ofteu by keeping, it would 

 probably be best preserved in cases or packages lined with 

 tin, or at least in well-closed pots to protect it from air 

 and moisture. The produce of coca per acre in a good 

 harvest is estimated by Weddell at about BOO lb.; and in 

 some districts there are three or even four harvests in 

 the year. The total produce of coca is probably not less 

 than 40,000,000 lb., which estimating the value on an 

 average at the low price of one shilling per pound (for 

 tbo best qualities yield at least five shillings) iu the countries 

 in which it is produced, would represent a total value of 

 £2,000,000 ; so that coca is by no means an unimportant 

 article of commerce, and its production is moreover de- 

 scribed as being very remunerative. It is chiefly exported 

 from Lima. 



Later information than that contained in Dr. Trimen's 

 nrticle, we Hud in a paper exti acted into the Inde- 

 pendent Journal from the (American) Medical Record, 

 the author being Dr. Oliver Mrore. This we have also 

 quoted in full in this number, and we may 

 now say that the writer uses the alternative name 

 '•,,■11 ; -t <tes that it is found wild in Pern and Bolivia, 

 aud that it is cultivated on hi'j/i altitudes The leaves, 

 which resemble those of the tea plant, are plucked at 



from one year old to 40 years. But we must quote 

 this passage : — 



They are considered ready for plucking when they break 

 on being bent, and are gathered in March (after the rainy 

 season, this beiug the most abundant crop), in July and in 

 November. Good samples of the dried leaves are uncurled, 

 with a deep green upper and a gray-green lower surface, 

 and have a strong, tea-like odour. Bad specimens have a 

 brown color and a smell resembling camphor. The flowers 

 of the plant are small and white, and are succeeded by red 

 berries. 



The seeds are sown in December and January; the 

 cultivation of the plant gives employment to thousands of 

 the people, and the annual production in Bolivia and Peru 

 in 1864, was estimated at two million five hundred thousand 

 dollars in value. 



The green leaves are spread ou coarse woollen cloths and 

 dried in the sun, then packed in bags, which, in order to 

 preserve the efficacy of the leaves, must be kept free from 

 dampness. The leaves are worth in Peru seventy-five cents 

 a pound, and cost here one dollar. 



If the "here" in the above means New York, Dr. 

 Moore must have written before the great rise in 

 price. It is computed that eight millions of the human 

 race use annually 30 million pounds of the leaves 

 mixed with lime. Two men buried in a mine are 

 said to have lived nine davs on the small quantity of 

 coca leaves they had with them, and the miners be- 

 lieve that the leaves chewed aud cast upon the ores 

 render the latter tractable. The praises of the leaf figure 

 in the poetry of Cowley. The leaves were used in 

 the religious ceremonies of the Peruvians. Bouchardat 

 considered coca almost equal in therapeutic value to 

 cinchona. The leaf was first introduced into France 

 in 1869 by Joseph Bain, a pharmacist who manu- 

 factured, from it an elixir and a wine. Cocaine seems 

 to have been discovered by Niemann in 1855 and its 

 physiological action is said to be identical with theine, 

 caffeine, &c. It is, therefore, deemed probable that 

 extracts of tea or coffee might be equal in effect to 

 cocaine, but see what Dr. Squibb writes in extracts 

 further on. Dr. Alexander Bennett (of the United States) 

 tried cocaine on animals and found it acted most 

 powerfully and poisonously on the various organs. So 

 different are the results in different hands. But the 

 important statement in Dr. Moore's paper is : — 



The experiments with the cocaine hydrochlorate, by ap- 

 plying it to mucous surfaces, as the conjunctiva, has been 

 known of only about oue mouth, aud, as far as I know, the 

 American surgeons hare been among the first to operate 

 with its use. Since then many more have been made, with 

 almost universal success. 



Another American writer, Dr. Squibb, wrote a 

 very elaborate article on Cocaine* which we 

 find taken over into the Pharmaceutical Journal of 

 Dec. 1884, from Ephemeris (no doubt an American 

 periodical) of October. This article deals mainly with 

 the chemical aspect of the matter, shewing how 

 very minute a quantity of the active principle can, 

 by any ordinary methods, be obtained from very 

 large quantities of leaves. Cocaine seems to have 

 always been very expensive aud rather rare in the 

 American market, Merck of Darmstadt having been 

 the principal maker. 'The sudden and large demands 

 following ou the discovery of the valuable anaesthetic 

 qualities of the drug had sent up the price con- 

 siderably. Dr. Squibb writes ; — 



The hydrochlorate of cocaine, which is the salt so much 

 in demand, is put up by Merck iu vials of 1 gram each, 

 and these before the excitement were sold at wholesale 

 at 2 50 dollars each, or about 10 cents a grain. But the 

 price did not remain long at this figure ; it rapidly ad- 

 vanced to about S'OO dollars per gram, or over 50 cents 

 per grain before the main supply was exhausted — and the 

 latest prices heard of were 75 cents per grain, or 1'25 dollar 

 per fluid drachm for a 4 per cent, solution. 



It is exceedingly rare that a novelty iu the materia medica 

 is so easily and so quickly tried, and still more rare that 



* Given further on. — Ed. 



