Chemical Properties of Cocani. 409 



the peculiar properties of the plant. Singular enough, the 

 various experiments with an effusion of the coca leaves had 

 not the least result, while it is well known that the use of 

 this kind of tea in the Cordilleras wonderfully stimulates 

 the breathing powers of the traveller, besides satisfying his 

 appetite.* It would also appear that the coca leaves lose 

 part of their virtue in transit, and that their most intense 

 activity is only developed in their native regions. If, how- 

 ever, the ultimate results of the experiments of Mr. Lossen, 

 instituted with as much sagacity as zeal, should incontestably 

 prove the value and utility of the plant for pharmaceutical 

 purposes, as well as in all cases where the human strength is 

 exposed to unwonted strains upon its energies, the means will 

 surely and easily be found for extracting on the spot the 

 active principles of coca, as is being at present done by in- 

 dustrious Yankees in Ecuador, with the Cinchona or China 

 bark. 



When the Novara was leaving Batavia, I cherished the 

 hope that our stay in South America would be sufficiently 

 prolonged to admit of my making an excursion to the Cin- 

 chona forests, so as to enable me to speak authoritatively and 

 from personal knowledge upon certain questions discussed at 

 Lembang with Dr. Junghuhn,t which had hitherto been left 



* See Von Tschudi id supra, vol. ii. 309. 



t I append here the most important points on which information is sought re- 

 specting the cUmatic and other conditions of the various Cinchona species as culti- 

 vated in South America, concerning which Dr. Junghuhn needed more correct 

 information, and can but express the hope, that, should curiosity or destiny lead the 



