1890 Coca and its Therapeutic Application by Angelo Mariani

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not deadened,by a physiological dose,but on the contrary, increased. The action of Cocaine on the nervous system is not exerted by the intervention of vascular constriction ; it is a. generalized exciting action,and a state of peripheric non-receptivity of external impressions(1)in the nervous extremities of the sensory nerves and the.nerves of gen eral sensation. Cocaine,according to M.Laffont, is not the antagonist of curare, as M.Laborde describes it, but quite the con trary, a particular curare,acting like it on the periphery, and not affecting the nervouscenters,the functional action of which is exaggerated thereby. M. le docteur Beugnies-Corbeau describes fully in the Revue Jicbdouiadaire dc Thc'rapcutiqtie gc'ncrale et thermale,the internal effects of Coca,until nowso obscure,and in regard to which no concrete doctrine had been formulated until M.le docteur Laffont presented to the Academie de Med- ecine his researches. He shows that Coca, from its active principles, should have these entirely distinct actions: 1° Action on the protoplasm of the nervous extremities of the sensory nerves and on the. nerves of general sensi bility, producing non-transmissibility to the nerves of pain ful and even sensorized impressions,in a large dose ; 2° Excito-functional action on the cerebro-spinal nervous centers, producing an augmentation of intellectual and muscular activity; 3° Excito-functional action on the great sympatheticcon strictor nerve,consequently an exaltation of the functional action of all the non-striated muscles or muscles of organic life, which are subordinate to it. Considering these distinct properties of the active prin ciples of Coca, M. Laffont explains the long-recognized virtues of Coca,in that they conserve the natural forces, notwithstanding the withdrawal of aliments,in the follow- (i) Dr. Laffont. JEtudephysiologique sur la Coca et les sets de Coca»