THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Jo Me I, 189s. 
Virtues of the Coca Leaf. — The reliance on the ex- 
traordinary virtues of the coca leaf amongst the 
Peruvian Indians is Very strong; In the province of 
Huanuco they believe that, if a dyin< man can taste 
a leaf placed on his tongue, it is a sure s'gn of 
his future happiness. A common remedy for a head- 
ache is to damp coca leaves, and to stick them all 
over the forehead. My own experience of coca was 
very much in its favour. Besides the agreeable 
soothing feeling it produced, I found that when I 
chewed it I could endu. e long abstinence from food 
with le3s inconvenience than I should otherwise havo 
felt, and that it enabled me to ascend precipitous 
mountain sides with a feeling of lightness and elas- 
ticity, and « ithout losing breath. This latter quality 
ought to recommend its use to members of the Alpine 
Olub, and to walking tourists in general. The smell 
of the coca leaf is agreeable and aromatic, and when 
chewed it gives out a gra'eful fragrance, accompanied 
by slight irritation, which excites the saliva. Tea 
made from the leaves has much the lasle of crcen 
tea and, if taken at night, is much more provoctUive 
of wakefulness. Applied externally, coca-leaves mode- 
rate rheumatic p.iius. When used to excess it is, like 
everything else, prejudical to health; jet. f all the 
narcotics and stimulants used by man coca is the 
le-ist injurious, and the moat soothing and invigorating. 
Cocaine.— The active principle of th a coca leaf was 
separated by Dr. Niemann in I860, and called cocaine. 
It is an alkaloid whioh crystallises with difficulty, 
is but slightly soluble in water, but easily so in 
alcohol, and still more easily in ether. The discovery 
of the medical virtues of cocaine followed son after 
the separation of the alkaloid. I remember that, 
when I was in Edinburgh in 1870, the eminent 
physician, Sir Robert Cnristison, spoke to in t on 
the subject of the use of coca leaves. He was then 
upwards of eighty years of age, and he told me 
that he had gone up and down Arthur's seat, with 
the use of coca, with a lulitness and elasticity such 
as he had not experienced since he was a young 
man He foretold that coca would attain the impor- 
tant position in the pharmacopoeia, before long, which 
it now holds. It was in 1891 that the great discovery 
was made by Herr Ko ler at Vienna, t!ia. cocaine 
produces local anses hesia. 
Export. — The great medicinal virtues of cocaine 
have since been ascerta.ued, and a demand hai arisen 
for the leaf which will increase. My 'ast Custom 
House returns from l'eru are for the list quarter of 
1890, when the esport of coca leaves from the ports 
of Mollendo and Salaverry to Englaud and Germany 
were 14 689 lb. worth &612, and of cocaine from Callao 
2,046 lb. worth £372. If these returns may be qua- 
drupled for the whole year, the quantity of coca was 
58,556 lb worth £2,568 and of cocaine 8,181 lb. worth 
£1,488. 
P!a?its distributed bi/ Kew.- — For the cultivation of 
the coca plant in our Colonies and in India we are 
indebted to Kew Garde ns, an institution to which 
thi3 Empire, and, indeed, the whole civilised world, 
owes an immense debt of gratitude for 'ts wise and 
indefatigable exertions in the distribution of plants. 
In 1869 coca plants were raised from seed at Kew, 
which came from the Department of Huanuco in 
Northern Peru. They belong to distinct variety first 
described by Mr. D. Morris, the able Assistant Direc- 
tor of Kew, and i amed by him Nora Granatense 
From this vari ty the plants are derived which are 
now growing in Jamaica, St. Luci i, Tiinidad and 
Ceylon. They were introduced into Jamaica and 
Ceylon in 1870. E-tperience, derived from cultivation 
in our Colonies, seems t ) indicate that the coca 
plant thrives best at lo * e'evations, from the sea 
level to 3,003 feet; from the point of vio>v of the 
largest yield of cocaine. But if the yield of crys- 
tallisable cocaine is considered, the plants grown at 
high altitudes are the richest. The Bo man laves 
yield 0 45 of cocaine, nearly all crystallisabl \ T'.e 
largest yield is recorded of a plant at Darjiling in 
" India, growing at 900 feet above the sea, nimely 
0 - 8 per cent, of which 0-45 was crystallisable. The 
next highest yield came from a plant at 100 fee 
above the sea in Jamaica, which give 0 76 per 3en 
only 0'33, ox less than, half, being crystallisable 
while Ceylon pla its, at 2.30) feet elevation, yielded 
0 6 per cent of cocaine, the whole being crysU. liv- 
able. At Buitenzorg, in Java, which is b - 20 feeL above 
the sea, the yield wax 0 39 per cent of which 0 3 
was crystallisable. 
Troptine*—! am indebted to Mr. Morris, of Kew, 
for tiie information that a new product ha-, been 
obtained from the small c~>ca leaves exponed from 
Java, which is called tropa www in or tuopijmt, and 
has lately come into use It is described as more 
reliable and deeper in iu action than c.caiue and, 
unlike the latter, it acts us an anaesthetic on lutiamed 
tissue. 
Yield of l.eace*. —Coca leaves are now exported 
from Ceyiou, Jamaica. Mauritius, Trinidad and Java, 
besides l'eru; and the Government of India is now 
proposing to gro * coca for its own needs. Uf course 
th- yield of alkaloids iu the main consideration iu 
tha growth of coca leaves for exportation, while the 
best kinds for home co isumptiou are t ose wluc'i 
best suit the tastes of consumers. 
Deterioration and J'ricc oj Leave*.— The deteriora- 
tion which the leaves suffer from long journeys, a id 
from being kep', caused me to abando i t tft Idea 
which I entertained many years ago. of promoting 
the importation of coca leaves for use <y moun- 
taineers and others in Europe. It now appeors that 
there is a distinct lost of aUalo d in the leaves, 
caused during a long voyage This circumstance has 
given rise to the manufacture of a crude a kaloid 
at Lima, containing 70 per cent of pur > crys'allUable 
cocaine, which sells at 15a per uz. The leaves 
fetched from lOd. to Is, £d. per lb in London and 
at New York, but now the price is much lower. 
Last week a parcel o' 8,500 lbs. was sold at 2d. per 
lb. but they had been under water for several hours. 
It seems, therefore, very unlikely that it will be 
worth while to export the leaves from India or the 
Colonies. The production in South America is so 
enormons that Peru will always be able to meet the 
demands of the market of Europe and of the United 
States with the crude alkaloid, such as is now manu- 
facture 1 at Lima. Put it will, doubtless, be profitable, 
both in India and in the Coionies, to grow sufficient 
coca for the purpose if manufacturing cocaine and 
trona-cocaine to meet all local demands. 
Conrludiii;/ remarlce. — I trust, then, that the recogni- 
tion of the virtues of the coca leaf will be, in the 
first place, beneficial to the Peruvian?. It was t ie 
Peravians who discovered some of those virtues many 
centuries ago; it is due solely to their industry and 
agricultural skill that coca was converted from a 
wld and useless, to a cultivated and most va nable 
plant; and as to them belongs the honour, so to 
them shoul 1 accrue the principal share of profit 
Great benefit will be conferred upon an increasing 
number of psople throughout the world by the use 
of this remarkab'e specific. Lastly, our own Col nits 
and British India will be able, through the ac'ion 
of Kew Gardens, to raise sufficient tj supply the 
need? of their own population-. Thus we rind, in 
the history ■ f coca ccftivatiou, one more instance 
of the benefits derived by the old World from the 
products that are peculiar to the New World: and 
one more example of the debt we owe to the lncas 
of Peru. If ;hey had not, by the application of un- 
unrivalled skill an 1 care, conver ed the coca a-.d the 
potato plants from wild to cultivat d products, we 
should probably never have known either ths virtues 
of the one, or the value, as a source of food supp y, 
of the other. The gra'itude of the peoples of the 
Old World is, the et> e due to the Inc s of Peru, 
who-e civilisation secured to us such iufstimab e 
benefits. — Imperial institute Journal. 
\ UTILISATION OF BAN AN \S FOB MEAL, 
ALCOHOL &c. 
Stanley's work, " In Darkest Africa " called the 
'• attention of the world to the dietetic value of 
Bananas, especially for invalids. Since that date 
1 experiments have been made for the purpose of so 
| preparing Bananas that they might be made use of 
iu all climates, not merely as fruit, but in the form 
' of meal to be cooked as gruel, paddings, &o. 
