40 ERYTHROXTLON COCA 



pupil nor the state of the skin ; it has caused neither drowsiness 

 nor sleeplessness ; assuredly it has occasioned none of those sub- 

 jective effects so fervidly described and ascribed to it by others 

 not the slightest excitement, nor even the feeling of buoyancy 

 and exhilaration which is experienced from mountain air, or a 

 draught of spring water. This examination was commenced in 

 the expectation that the drug would prove important and 

 interesting physiologically, and perhaps valuable as a therapeutical 

 agent. This expectation has been disappointed. Without asserting 

 that it is positively inert, it is concluded from these experiments 

 that its action is so slight as to preclude the idea of its having 

 any value either therapeutically or popularly ; and it is the belief 

 of the writer, from observation upon the effect on the pulse, &c., 

 of tea, milk-and-water, and even plain water, hot, tepid, and cold, 

 that such things may, at slightly different temperatures, produce 

 a more decided effect than even large doses of coca if taken at 

 about the temperature of the body. What its physiological action 

 may be, particularly on the lower animals, in highly concentrated 

 doses, as of the alkaloid or the distillate, is another question, as it 

 is whether the subjective effects which have been asserted may 

 not offer a question of curious nervous idiosyncrasies." 



These results of Mr. Dowdeswell's would appear to set at rest 

 the claims of coca as a therapeutical agent. Very recently, how- 

 ever, a writer in the ' Lancet' has again described it as a 

 powerful nervine tonic, and recommends its use to sportsmen 

 whose nervous system is badly adapted for steady shooting. 



Yoyage dans le Nord de Bolivie, &c., par Docteur Weddoll 

 (Paris, 1853) ; Johnston's Chemistry of Common Life, vol. ii, 

 p. 138; Watts, Diet. Chem., vol. i, p. 1059; U. S. Disp., by 

 W. & B., p. 1591 ; Weddell, in Pharm. Journ., vol. xiv, 1 ser., 

 pp. 163 and 213 ; Mantegazza, in Pharm. Journ., vol. i, 2 ser., 

 p. 616; Pharm. Journ., vol. i, 3 ser., p. 43; Simmonds, in 

 Chemist and Druggist for April and May, 1876, pp. 112 and 

 155; Shuttleworth, in Canadian Pharm. Journ., Nov., 1874, 

 and English Pharm. Journ., vol. v, 3 ser., p. 483; Amer. 

 Journ. Pharm., March, 1861, p. 122, and Nov., 1861, p. 500; 

 Journ. de Pharm., Avril, 1859, p. 283, and Juin, 1862, p. 522; 

 Fuentes, Journ. de Pharm., 4 ser., vol. iv, p. 268 ; Reis, Bullet. 



