298 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



Often a victim of this practice is toothless at 

 twenty-five years from it. Ceylon exports half 

 a million dollars' worth of these nuts annually. 



The gum-chewing habit seen so much in this 

 country is less defensible among our intelligent 

 people than the betel-chewing of the dark-skinned 

 natives of the East Indies. They have less knowl- 

 edge of the proper care of a healthy body, and no 

 higher standards to judge their habits by than 

 those inherited from half-civilized parents 



COCA 



A wonderful power of resisting mental or bodily 

 weariness is imparted to the person who chews the 

 leaves of the coca shrub, that grows wild in the 

 Andean valleys of Bolivia and Peru. The dried 

 leaves, mixed with quicklime, are chewed by all 

 the natives of the region, and quantities are ex- 

 ported, for it is from these leaves that the drug, 

 cocaine, is extracted. This is used in dentistry, 

 to produce insensibility to pain over a small area, 

 and for a short time. The habit of chewing coca 

 leaves is an ancient one. The Indians cannot get 

 on without this stimulating drug. The habit of 

 taking cocaine is a recent one among civilized 

 people, and though the results are soothing, the 



