CHAPTER XIII.MEDICAL USES AND REFERENCES.
Coca has been praised as a nervine and muscular tonic, preventing waste of tissue, appeasing hunger and thirst, relieving fatigue, and aiding free respiration, and as being useful in various diseases of the digestive and respiratory organs. It is said to be specially useful in many forms of asthma, chronic bronchitis, obstinate cough, phthisis, and general debility; in gastric derangements, owing to its slight astringency, it seems to give more tone to the stomach than the mere anæsthetic action of the Cocaine it contains would produce locally; it is recommended for indigestion, gastralgia, gastrodynia, nausea, sickness, distaste for food, is given to relieve pain, nausea, vomiting, or discomfort caused by excess in either eating or drinking or by pregnancy, and as a cure for morphine and alcohol craving. In using it for this in America it is said in some cases to have produced “Coca Craving.”
Coca is also said to cause mental exhilaration, to overcome diffidence or bashfulness in company, and to be an excitant of the vital functions. It has been used in melancholia, in cases of inordinate hunger or thirst, such as occur in some forms of diabetes, and in cases of generative debility. Locally, a solution of the extract in water has been used as a pigment in irritated, inflamed, and granular conditions of the larynx and pharynx.
The pastils have been used similarly for loss of voice due to weakness or relaxation of the vocal cords. Topically these preparations act as astringent sedatives without deranging the stomach. Externally, Coca may be made into poultices, or a plaster made with the extract combined with resin or soap plaster may be applied for rheumatism, lumbago, &c. The leaves are sometimes smoked to relieve asthma.
The leaves are chewed to appease hunger and support strength, in the absence of food, and used generally for the stimulant and narcotic effects of tobacco and alcohol.—Pr. xvi. 467.
Coca-leaves as an inhalation, or smoked in a pipe, have a decided effect on bronchial spasm.—L. i./76,520.
Is of use to steady the nerves of excitable persons—to a sportsman in shooting, for example; to give endurance, is used by travellers in Bolivia and Peru, and to counteract the effect of rarefied air on mountains.—L. ii./76,449.
Historical and botanical account of the plant and its uses; the result of a series of experiments on its use was most unsatisfactory, although the drug was given in every variety of ways, under all circumstances, and at all hours of the day.—L. i./76,631,664.
Two ascents of Ben Voirlich, under the influence of, respectively, 60 and 90 grains, done with ease by Sir Robert Christison. By the use of Coca, hunger and thirst are suspended, but eventually appetite and digestion are unaffected; the mental faculties are not affected after great bodily fatigue, except by freeing them from dulness and drowsiness.—B.M.J. i./76,527; P.J. 1876,883.
Twelve athletes, during a game, chewed, without lime or ashes, from 60 to 90 grains; at first in some, dryness was felt, and relieved by washing the mouth; then followed a feeling of invigoration, so that fatigue was wholly or in great part resisted; the pulse increased in frequency, and perspiration augmented. Save exhilaration of spirits, no mental effects were noticed or disagreeable effects realised.—P.J. 1877,221.
A party climbing Mont Blanc, each chewing 80 grains of Coca during ten hours, were much relieved from thirst by its use. They drank no water, tea, or coffee, and but a limited amount of wine, yet Coca enabled them to make the trip with comparative comfort.—M.T.G. ii./82,165.
It enables a greater amount of fatigue to be borne with less nourishment, and lessens the difficulty of respiration in ascending mountain sides. Tea made fromit has much the taste of green tea, and is much more effectual in keeping people awake.—Markham’s Peruvian Bark, p. 152.
In France, Bouchardat states it has rendered most valuable therapeutic service, almost equal to cinchona bark. It is a stimulant to the nervous and muscular systems, and ranks with tea and coffee; it prevents the rapid waste of tissue, and enables the consumer to go a long time without food.—B.M.J. i./76,486.
Use in walking feats.—B.M.J. i./76,335,361,387,518,519,750,752.
The leaves are neither nutritive nor tonic; it is in their anæsthetic properties, developed by chewing the leaves with lime or plant ash, the Indian finds the numbing effect on the mucous membrane of the stomach that he seeks.—P.J. 1885,266.
Fluid extract of Coca relieved hæmorrhage from bowel when given internally.—Pr. xxxv.401. And gives great relief in gastralgia.—M.P.C. ii./87,479.
Report on the Coca alkaloids.—B.M.J. i./89,1043,1108,1158.