ON  THE  LEAVES  OF  THE  COCA.  149 
strength,  as  all  know ;  but  who  does  not  know  also  that  the 
"gift"  is  but  a  loan  made  out  at  the  expense  of  strength  re- 
served for  the  future  ?  The  action  of  this  agent,  though  pow- 
erful, is  transient.  The  stimulus  produced  bj  mastication  of 
the  leaf  of  the  Erythroxylon  is,  on  the  contrary,  slow  and  sus- 
tained, characters  which  it  owes  doubtless  in  great  part  to  the 
manner  of  its  employment,  since  an  infusion  of  coca  acts  very 
differently  from  the  leaf  taken  in  the  ordinary  way.  It  will  be 
said  that  tea  and  coffee,  whose  effects  appear  to  have  more 
analogy  with  those  of  coca,  would  perhaps  produce  analogous 
results  if  taken  in  the  same  manner.  I  do  not  believe  that  such 
would  be  the  case.  Tea  and  coffee  (coffee  in  particular)  act  spe- 
cially on  the  brain,  on  which  they  produce  an  antisoporific  effect, 
but  too  well  known  to  those  who  are  not  in  their  habitual  use. 
But  coca,  while  producing  a  little  of  this  effect,  when  taken  in 
large  doses,  as  I  have  often  experienced  in  my  own  person,  does 
not  act  perceptibly  upon  the  brain  in  small  doses.  To  account 
for  the  ordinary  effects  of  the  leaf,  one  must  then  suppose  that 
its  action,  instead  of  being  localised,  as  in  the  case  of  tea  and 
coffee,  is  diffused,  and  bears  upon  the  nervous  system  generally, 
producing  upon  it  a  sustained  stimulus,  well  suited  to  impart  to 
those  who  are  under  its  influence  that  support  which  has  been  er- 
roneously attributed  to  peculiar  nutritive  properties. 
Finally,  I  think  that  in  the  fidelity  of  the  Indian  to  the  use  of 
coca,  as  with  some  smokers  and  their  pipes,  much  is  due  to  habit ; 
and  it  is,  I  think,  essential  not  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact,  that  the 
force  of  habit  must  have  an  influence  all  the  more  powerful, 
since  the  habit  in  question  is  almost  the  only  one  he  retains  of 
past  times,  and  that  now,  as  then,  he  attaches  to  the  use  of  the 
coca-leaf  superstitious  ideas,  which,  to  his  imagination,  must  at 
least  treble  the  greatness  of  the  benefits  he  derives  from  it. 
Lastly,  that  in  the  mastication  of  coca  he  finds  the  sole  distrac- 
tion that  breaks  the  incomparable  monotony  of  his  existence.— 
London  Pharm.  Jour.  Nov.  1854. 
