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.
VIN MARIANI.
This is the first of the preparations of Coca and the one most generally adopted; to the tonic and stimulant action of the drug there is added that of a choice quality of wine.
Vin Mariani contains the soluble parts of the Coca plant. The combination of Coca, with the tannin and the slight traces of iron which this wine naturally contains, is pronounced the most efficacious of tonics.
The fresh Coca leaves that we employ, after careful selection, come from three different sources and are of incomparable quality. It is this that gives to our wine that special taste and agreeable aroma which renders it so acceptable to the sick.
It is likewise to the combination and preparing of these three varieties of Coca leaf in our wine that we can attribute this important fact: during more than thirty years, no matter in how large doses taken, Vin Mariani has never produced cocainism, nor any other unpleasant effects.[22]
Vin Mariani is a diffusible tonic, the action of which is immediate. This action, instead of being localized on a single organ, the stomach, spreads to the whole system. Taken into the circulation, it awakens in its course the retarded functions of every organ, and this is owing to the presence in our preparation of the volatile principles of the plant.
Unlike other tonics, the astringent properties of which lead at length to heat and constipation, Vin Mariani does not produce any disorder of the digestive functions; it stimulates them, exerts a refreshing action on the gastric mucous membrane, and on that account so advantageously replaces the preparations of cinchona, iron, strychnine, etc.