DISEASES OF THE STOMACH.
Authors who have given attention to Coca speak very highly of its employment in gastralgia and tardy and laborious digestion.
Demarle says on this subject: "Personally, I have found the use of Coca, either before or after eating, excellent for gastrodynia and pyrosis, to which I am subject; hardly have I swallowed the first bit of saliva when the whole unpleasant feeling disappears."
Mantegazza speaks of its use in the same strain. The cephalic congestion which accompanies his digestion is relieved; he can work after eating without feeling any uneasiness.
Dr. Ch. Gazeau (Thèse pour le Doctorat, Paris, 1870, Parent, édit., pp. 61 et seq.) thus sums up the physiological action of Coca: "On the stomach, slight excitation, anæsthesia, and probably an increase of the secretion of gastric juice; on the intestines, an increase of the intestinal secretions, etc. These manifold physiological effects upon the digestive tube unite in a specific action, so to speak, in the numerous functional troubles, so varied and so ill-understood, of the organs that compose it."
The same author cites a great number of cases of this sort in which Coca "has never failed to exert an admirable action, often even marvelous." And he concludes (page 65): "It seems to me useless to bring forward more examples; these are enough to justify this positive general conclusion: Coca is the remedy par excellence for diseases of the digestive tube."
Beugniès-Corbeau[19] prescribes it in chloro-anæmia, not only for gastralgia, but for the frequent desire to eat which patients feel, disappearing as soon as the first mouthful has been taken, only to return a little while afterward.
Prof. O. Réveil ends his article on Coca as follows: "Much remains to be done in the physiological and clinical study of Coca; it is known that it acts on the motor and sensory nervous system. This substance is destined some day to take an important rank in therapeutics."
In irritability and various affections of the cerebral centers, Dr. J. Leonard Corning makes use of Coca, which he prefers to the bromides.
In a very remarkable essay on Erythroxylon Coca, published at Ixelles, in 1885, a perusal of which we urge upon all who are interested in the study of Coca, Dr. A. Feigneau says (page 61):
"There can be no mistake that, to a certain extent, Coca stimulates the cerebra-spinal activity by suspending or retarding the destruction of tissue in the economy, and that its action may modify the functions of the nervous centers, provided there are no such contra-indications to its use as active congestion, inflammation, or organic changes in these organs."
"Consequently it would be indicated under all circumstances where a nervous affection seemed to depend upon a state of ataxia."
"In irritations of the spinal cord, in mental aberration accompanied by melancholia, as well as against idiopathic convulsions (Mantegazza) and nervous paraplegia."
Dr. Beverley Robinson considers the Vin Mariani as a cardiac tonic[20]:
"On several occasions, when digitalis has proved to be useless or injurious, I have had very excellent results from caffeine or convallaria. Certainly, the latter drug is more easily tolerated by a sensitive stomach than digitalis is; and whenever the nervous supply of the heart is especially implicated, I believe that I secure more quieting effects from its employment. Among well known cardiac tonics and stimulants for obtaining temporary good effects, at least, I know of no drug quite equal to Coca. Given in the form of wine or fluid extract, it does much, at times, to restore the heart-muscle to its former tone. I have obtained the best effects from the use of Mariani's wine. From personal information given me by this reliable pharmacist, these results are attributable to the excellent quality of the Coca leaves and of the wine which he uses in its manufacture."
In cases of morphinomania, Dr. Dujardin-Beaumetz has pointed out the advantage to be obtained with the Vin Mariani, and, following him, Dr. Palmer, of Louisville, and Dr. Sigmaux Treux, of Vienna, have obtained excellent results with this therapeutic agent. Further on, we give a case of Dr. Villeneuve's, showing the cure of a morphinomaniac by the combined use of the Vin and the Pâte (Mariani).
Dr. H. Libermann recommends the use of Coca, in the form of Vin Mariani, against morphinomania, nicotinism and alcoholism.
"In general diseases it is to the stimulating properties of the plant that recourse is oftenest had. These properties make it the tonic par excellence whenever the object is to build up a system that has been enfeebled from any cause. Its preparations, accordingly, may be ordered in convalescence from all grave fevers, in anæmia and chloro-anæmia, in all diathetic or cachætic conditions, whatever may have been their original cause (chronic rheumatism, gout, genito-urinary affection, cancer, etc.), in short, in all cases where the system is debilitated from any cause whatever."
But it is, above all, in diseases that have a depressing action on the nervous system that the effect of Coca is truly marvelous. Gubler, in his Commentaires de thérapeutique, shows himself its warm champion. "Coca," says he, "very much like tea and coffee, lends to the nervous system the force with which it is charged, after the manner of a fulminate, but with this difference, that it yields it gradually and not all at once."
The theory of the fulminates, invented by M. Gubler, tallies so well with observed facts, that Mantegazza, without generalizing and without pretending to form a theory, but limiting himself to describing by simile what he had seen, truer probably than he himself supposed, said: "Under the influence of Coca, it seems that a new force is gradually introduced into our organism, like water into a sponge." (A. Dechambre.)
This opinion has been corroborated by all authors who have given attention to the question, and it may be looked upon as one of the least contestible in therapeutics.
We will add, what is quite important, that as a tonic Coca has been found far superior to cinchona, iron, strychnine, etc. Everybody knows their astringent action, which makes them give rise to such obstinate constipation that there are patients in whom it is often necessary to suspend their use. There is no such objection to Coca; it never constipates, and practically its use may be continued indefinitely.
COCA LEAVES.
(Branch in natural state.)
CHAPTER V.
OUR VARIOUS PREPARATIONS OF COCA.
Immediately after the importation of the Coca leaf into Europe, we conceived the plan, the outcome of the request of many physicians, of making preparations from Coca. Vin Mariani.—Elixir Mariani.—Pâte Mariani.—Thé Mariani.—Pastilles Mariani, etc. (The author's name was kindly added to his preparations by the medical profession, who had recognized the superiority of his products.)
These different preparations had been used by our greatest practitioners long before the discovery, or rather the application of Cocaine.
The results obtained were marvelous, and the innumerable letters which were addressed to us by physicians who experimented with and used our products and rendered accounts in the medical journals in all parts of the world, would fill several large volumes.[21]
Under the esteemed patronage of our greatest medical celebrities, our preparations are known all over the world; they have reached all classes of society and everywhere, in the large cities as in the small villages, men, women, children, in fact, convalescents of all ages now know the name of the salutary plant, which it is and has been our effort to popularize, though strictly so according to the code of medical ethics and by those channels approved of by the entire medical profession.
We shall now consider the different ways in which we use Coca, and which under the well-known forms of vin, élixir, pâte, and of thé Mariani, have received such universal recognition. We will show incidentally the esteem in which these preparations are held by the highest medical authorities.