"There is," says Dr. Mallez, "a form of anæmia to which the attention of physicians has not yet been called, and which yields marvelously to the employment of Vin Mariani; we allude to that state of profound depression of the economy, of extremely marked impoverishment of the blood, which also results from the prolonged abuse of balsamics in the treatment of diseases of the urinary passages.
"The number of persons who, attacked with blennorrhagia, use cubebs, copaiba, turpentine, etc., to a deplorable extent is considerable. So true is this that, out of a hundred young dyspeptics, we may affirm without fear of being in error that at least forty of them have become so by the use of balsamics.
"In like manner, the number of patients affected with urinary gravel whom the prolonged and excessive use of the agents just mentioned, has rendered dyspeptic and then neuropathic is enormous. Like the former, they owe the profound disorder of their digestive functions to the immoderate use of resins and oleo-resins.
"It is of the first importance, therefore, to relieve these persons by making them take, after having given them light laxatives and some preparations intended to strengthen the stomach, not iron, not cinchona, not, as we have said above, local tonics, which would be of little if any use, but diffusible tonics, that is to say, those that act upon the local condition and at the same time upon the general condition, and which, moreover, do not constipate.
"It is here that Vin Mariani, proves its great advantage and succeeds where other tonics have failed, in stimulating the functions of the stomach. On the one hand by the small quantity of tannin which it contains, on the other through the active principles of Coca, associated with the wine, which serves as a vehicle, exciting the vitality of each organ separately, not, however, without having previously exerted its vivifying action on the mucous membrane of the stomach itself." (Gazette des Hopitaux, Nov. 23, 1877.)
The analgesic properties of Vin Mariani have received a happy application in clinical laryngoscopy by Dr. Ch. Fauvel. This eminent specialist has made use of it for the past twenty-six years with unvarying success in all affections of the laryngeal mucous membrane, the air passages, and the vocal organs. In granular angina it takes the place of the topical medication and cauterizations which are so often injurious when they are used indiscriminately and to excess.
The employment of Vin Mariani rapidly relieves patients of the feeling of heat and tingling which is one of the most annoying symptoms of this very common disease of the throat. (Gazette des Hopitaux, May 12, 1877.)
Dr. Beverley Robinson recommends Vin Mariani as a heart tonic.
Dr. W. H. Pancoast says that Vin Mariani is a valuable preparation and a tonic of the highest merit.
Dr. Jules Bouvyer, of Cauteretz, employs it with success in certain affections of the larynx as an adjuvant to the sulphurous treatment.