Such isolated cases, in some respects at least parallel, in inveterate drunkards, are occasionally met with in this country. Coqueros become afflicted with a peculiar disease. Pöppig says:—
“The natives of the cold and dry districts of the Andes are more addicted to the consumption of Coca than those of the close forests, where, undoubtedly, other stimulants do but take its place. Weakness in the digestive organs, ... increasing continually in a greater or less degree, first attacks the unfortunate coquero. This complaint, which is called opilacion, may be trifling in the beginning, but soon attains an alarming height. Then come bilious obstructions, attended with all those thousand painful symptoms which are so much aggravated by tropical climate. Jaundice and derangement of the nervous system follow, along with pains in the head, and such prostration of strength that the patient speedily loses all appetite; the hue of the whites assumes a leaden colour, and a total inability to sleep ensues, which aggravates the mental depression of the unhappy individual, who, in spite of all his ills, cannot relinquish the use of the herb to which he owes his sufferings, but craves brandy in addition. The appetite becomes quite irregular, sometimes failing altogether, and sometimes assuming a wolfish voracity, especially for animal food. Thus do years of misery drag on, succeeded at length by a painful death.”
Later, Dr. Weddell, however, who travelled where Coca was most in use, saw no results from its use at all bearing comparison with these just narrated. He gives the following interesting detailed account of the growth, cultivation, and use of Coca from personal observation.
CHAPTER V.
DR. WEDDELL’S ACCOUNT.[13]
“The cultivation of Erythoxylon Coca, as carried on in Bolivia in the present day, does not appear to differ from that which prevailed previous to the conquest; and the province of Yungas de la Paz is that which, since the Spanish occupation, seems to have supported the most considerable plantations. All the slopes of the mountains, below an elevation of 2,200 mètres [7,217 feet], are literally covered with them, and the traveller has continually in view the factories or haciendas where the leaf is prepared for the purposes of trade.
“The Coca shrub is propagated from seed. For this purpose the seeds, immediately after gathering, are scattered on the surface of the light and frequently watered soil of a little nursery (almaciga), where they come up generally at the end of ten or fifteen days. The waterings are continued, and should the sun strike the young plants too violently, they are sheltered with mats.
“The following year the shrubs, whose height is already from 40 to 50 centimètres [16 to 20 inches] are transplanted into a plot of ground specially prepared for them and called a cocal. The arrangement of these plantations is much more complicated than that of an ordinary plantation, and varies according to the inclination of the surface. When the cocal occupies the slope of a mountain, which is the usual case, the cultivator forms a series of narrow steps, each intended for a single row of shrubs, and the more elevated (consequently the less numerous) as the surface is more steep. They are generally supported by little stone walls, which serve not merely to contain the earth and prevent its drying, but also to protect the stem and roots of the young shrubs from the too direct influence of the solar rays, by means of the projection which they form above the level of the soil.
“Where the ground is level, they make, instead of steps or terraces, simple furrows (uachos) in a straight line, and separated from one another by little walls of well-moulded earth, called umachas, at the foot of each of which is planted a row of the shrubs, more or less far apart from each other.
“At the end of a year and a half the plant affords its first crop, and from this period to the age of forty years or more it continues to yield a supply. Instances are cited of Coca plantations which have existed for nearly a century, and which still produce. Nevertheless, the greatest abundance of leaves is obtained from plants of from three to six years of age. When the trees run up too much, the produce is less than when they spread; they are therefore pruned in some cases to favour an increase in breadth, which, however, is never considerable, as the form of the shrub is irregular. The average height of the wild plant appears to be about 2 mètres, but in cultivation it is generally allowed to attain but 1 mètre [39 inches].
“The first gathering which takes place in a Coca plantation is at the expense of only the lower leaves of the shrubs, and it is therefore called quita calzon.[14] The leaves of which this gathering consists are larger and more coriaceous than those of subsequent collections, and also have less flavour. They are mostly consumed on the spot. All the other gatherings go by the name of mitas, and take place three times, or exceptionally, four times per annum. The most abundant harvest is that occurring in March—that is, immediately after the rains; this is the mita de marzo. The most scanty is that which takes place at the end of June or beginning of July, and which is called mita de San Juan. The third, named mita de Santos, is made in October or November.