1890 Coca and its Therapeutic Application by Angelo Mariani

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Mantegazza has studied the effect of Coca and,according- to this author,it acts as a stimulanton the nervous system, the respiration, and the circulation. A dose of fifteen to twenty grammes of Coca produces, an increase of the heart-beat,increasing pulse, and finally a rise in temperature. Mantegazza observed on him self that, under the influence of such a dose, his pulse increased from 65 to 124. Moreno, who repeated the same experiment, obtained similar results. The temperature and respiration are increased in the same proportion as the circulation. The same dose,or even a weaker one, produces a remark ably stimulating effect on the nervous system. It is from this stimulating effect that Coca makes one more active and vigorous and enables those to accomplish more work who, withoiit it, would soon be overcome with more or less fatigue. The useof largerdoses(60grammes for example) has caused intoxication, accompanied by sensation of happiness, which makes everything appear under a favor able aspect. Mantegazza, who experienced this intoxi cation, describes his sensations in an animated style, which recalls that of the Oriental legends: "Borne on the wings of two Coca leaves, I flew about in the spaces of 77,438 worlds, one more splendid than another. I prefer a life of ten years with Coca to one of a hundred thousand without it. It seemed to me that I was sepa rated from the whole world, and I beheld the strangest imaofes, most beautiful in color and in form that can be o ' imagined." In 1868, Moreno y Maiz made some researches into the physiological action of Cocaine,and explained them in an interesting thesis which he read before the Faculty of Paris(1). At about the same time, Lippmann,of Strasbourg, de voted his labors to the same subject, but his investigations

(l) Moreno y Maiz, Thhe de Paris, 1868.