The plague of nerves : their treatment / by a physician.

  • Stephen Smith & Co.
Date:
[1893?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The plague of nerves : their treatment / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/36 (page 5)
    It is the simple truth that Coca combines in itself the qualities of a food, a beverage, and a medicine. A few details showing its powers in each of these respects will not be out of place. COCA AS A FOOD. As a food Coca belongs to the class called by physio¬ logists aliments d'epargne. These are substances which, though not directly serving to build up tissue, prevent its breaking down. Gubler, one of ihe best modern authorities on all that relates to drugs, states that Coca yields up the force stored within it by slow degrees so that its invigorating effect is prolonged. All travellers agree in bearing witness to the mar¬ vellous sustaining powers of the Coca leaf under severe bodily exertion. With a few leaves of this wonderful plant to'cSePW the Indian can go without food for days together, without exhaustion and to all appearances without inconvenience. In the mines in the coldest parts of the Cordilleras the Indians sometimes work day and night with only a few moments of rest at long intervals, and with no food or drink but a hand¬ ful of Coca leaves. The Indian runners who carry the mails over rugged and desert mountains for hundreds of miles make their journeys exposed to the worst inclemencies of weather on Coca alone. Euro¬ peans in these regions would break down under the terrible labour of the mines and the rigours of the climate unless they had learnt by the example of ihe natives how to maintain their health and strength by the systematic use of Coca. Dr. Paolo Mantegazza the distinguished Italian physiologist who was for many years in practice as a doctor in South America and who made a special