Properties of the Coca Plant. 403 



Before I left Europe one of our most celebrated German phar- 

 macologists, M. Wohler of Gottingen, expressed to me his wish 

 to procure a considerable quantity of coca leaves, to enable him 

 to analyze more completely than had as yet been done the 

 chemical constituents of this remarkable plant, and I there- 

 fore made it a duty to take measures for procuring the re- 

 quisite su2)ply. Although the wonderful stimulant properties 

 of the coca had for more than half a century been known to 

 European travellers, the leaves of tlie plant, which flourishes 

 best on the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras of Peru and 

 Bolivia, at an elevation of about 8000 feet, and a temperature 

 of from 64°. 4 to 68° Eahr., have hitherto only reached 

 Europe in very small quantities, having in fact been carried 

 home simply as curiosities. It was reserved for one of the 

 Novara expedition to bring over as much as 60 lbs. weight for 

 the purpose of investigation of its properties by German men 

 of science. Half of this quantity I took to Europe among 

 my own effects ; the remainder was forwarded somewhat 

 later, through the kindness of two German gentlemen resi- 

 dent in Lima, Messrs. C. Eggert and N. Linnich. 



So many, and in the main correct, accounts * have been 

 published by travellers of the coca plant, its culture, its effect 



* Vide E. Poppig, Travels in Chile, Peru, and down the Amazon, vol. ii. p. 248. — 

 Von Tschudi, Sketches of Peruvian Travel, vol. ii. p. 290. — Weddell, Travels in North- 

 ern Boli\aa in 1853, p. 514. — Von Bibra, Narcotics and their Influence on Man. — His- 

 tory of the Expedition of M. Castelnau in the Central Territories of South America. 

 Paris, 1850, vol. iii. p. 349. — Dr. Paul Montegazza, "Researches into the Hygienic 

 and Medicinal Properties of Coca. Annali de Medicina. March, 1859." 



2 D 2 



