COCAINE.
In writing about cocaine, we find that interest lies not so much in
itself as in the plant of which it is the alkaloid, the “_erythroxylon
coca_.”
The coca plant is indigenous to Peru, and from the most ancient times,
Peruvian Indians have chewed the leaves as a habit, as Indians in this
country chew the betel leaf and tobacco. “The local consumption of coca
is immense,” says Dr. Hartwig, “as the Peruvian Indian reckons its
habitual use among the prime necessaries of life, and is never seen
without a leathern pouch filled with a provision of the leaves, and
containing besides a small box of powdered, unslaked lime. At least
three times a day he rests from his work to chew his indispensable coca.
Carefully taking a few leaves out of the bag, and removing their midribs,
he first masticates them in the shape of a small ball, which is called an
acullico; then repeatedly inserting a thin piece of moistened wood like a
tooth-pick into the box of unslaked lime, he introduces the powder which
remains attached to it into the acullico until the latter has acquired
the requisite flavour. The saliva, which is abundantly secreted while
chewing the pungent mixture, is mostly swallowed along with the green
juice of the plant.
“When the acullico is exhausted, another is immediately prepared, for one
seldom suffices. The corrosive sharpness of the unslaked lime requires
some caution, and an unskilled coca chewer runs the risk of burning
his lips, as, for instance, the celebrated traveller Tschudi, who, by
the advice of his muleteer, while crossing the high mountain-passes of
the Andes, attempted to make an acullico, and instead of strengthening
himself as he expected, merely added excruciating pain to the fatigues of
the journey.”
The poet Cowley succinctly describes the physical effects of coca in the
following lines:
“Our Varicocha first this coca sent,
“Endow’d with leaves of wondrous nourishment,
“Whose juice succ’d in, and to the stomach tak’n
“Long hunger and long labour can sustain
“From which our faint and weary bodies find
“More succour, more they clear the drooping mind,
“Than can your _Bacchus_ and your _Ceres_ join’d.
“Three leaves supply for six days’ march afford
“The Quitoita with this provision stor’d
“Can pass the vast and cloudy Andes o’er.”
“It is a remarkable fact,” Dr. Hartwig tells us, “that the Indians,
who regularly use coca, require but little food, and when the dose is
augmented, are able to undergo the greatest fatigues without tasting
almost anything else.” Professor Pöppig ascribes this astonishing
endurance to a momentary excitement which must necessarily be succeeded
by a corresponding collapse, and therefore considers the use of coca
absolutely hurtful. Tschudi, however, is of opinion that its moderate
consumption, far from being injurious, is, on the contrary, extremely
wholesome, and cites the examples of several Indians who, never allowing
a day to pass without chewing their coca, “attained the truly patriarchal
age of one hundred and thirty years.”
The effects of excess in coca chewing are given by Hill in his _Travels
in Peru and Mexico_. “The worst that can be said of the coca is its
effects upon the health of such of the Indians as use it in excess. It
then affects the breath, pales the lips and gums, and leaves a black mark
on either side of the mouth. Moreover, after some time, the nerves of the
consumer become affected, and a general langour is said to give plain
evidence of the sad consequences of excess.”
Another writer gives a more depressing picture of the excessive consumer:
“The confirmed coca chewer, or Coquero, is known at once by his uncertain
step, his sallow complexion, his hollow, lack-lustre black-rimmed eyes,
deeply sunk in the head, his trembling lips, his incoherent speech, and
his stolid apathy. His character is irresolute, suspicious, and false; in
the prime of life he has all the appearances of senility, and in later
years sinks into complete idiocy. Avoiding the society of man, he seeks
the dark forest, or some solitary ruin, and there, for days together,
indulges in his pernicious habit. While under the influence of coca, his
excited fancy riots in the strangest visions, now revelling in pictures
of ideal beauty, and then haunted by dreadful apparitions. Secure from
intrusion he crouches in an obscure corner, his eyes immovably fixed
upon one spot; and the almost automatic motion of the hand raising the
coca to the mouth, and its mechanical chewing, are the only signs of
consciousness which he exhibits. Sometimes a deep groan escapes from
his breast, most likely when the dismal solitude around him inspires
his imagination with some terrific vision, which he is as little able
to banish, as voluntarily to dismiss his dreams of ideal felicity. How
the Coquero finally awakens from his trance, Tschudi was never able to
ascertain, though most likely the complete exhaustion of his supply at
length forces him to return to his miserable hut.”
The coca plant has from ancient times been the object of religious
veneration by the Peruvian Indians, and although we have no historical
record to tell us when the use of coca was introduced, or who first
discovered its peculiar properties, we learn that when Pizarro destroyed
Athualpa’s Empire, he found that the Incas employed coca in their
religious ceremonies and sacrifices “either for fumigation, or as an
offering to the gods. The priests chewed coca while performing their
rites, and the favour of the invisible powers was only to be obtained by
a present of these highly valued leaves. No work begun without coca could
come to a happy termination, and divine honours were paid to the shrub
itself.”
“After a period of more than three centuries, Christianity has not yet
been able to eradicate these deeply-rooted superstitious feelings, and
everywhere the traveller still meets with traces of the ancient belief in
its mysterious powers. To the present day the miners of Cerro de Pasco
throw chewed coca against the hard veins of the ore, and affirm that they
can then be more easily worked—a custom transmitted to them from their
forefathers who were fully persuaded that the Coyas, or subterranean
divinities, rendered the mountains impenetrable, unless previously
propitiated by an offering of coca. Even now the Indians put coca into
the mouths of their dead, to ensure them a welcome on their passage to
another world; and whenever they find one of their ancestral mummies,
they never fail to offer it some of the leaves.”
It is believed that the superstitions regarding coca were looked upon
with great disgust by the Spaniards, and that their efforts to stamp them
out did more to keep alive the enmity borne them by the Indians than
anything else.
The coca plant was first grown in Ceylon in 1870 when it was introduced
from Kew. It was grown there as a result of a suggestion made by Mr.
Joseph Stevenson who pointed out the commercial importance of the plant
in view of the separation of the alkaloid cocaine by Nieman in 1859; but
owing to the liability of the coca leaves to rapid deterioration after
picking in unfavourable climatic conditions, this branch of commerce
has not developed, and as yet no attempt has been made to extract the
alkaloid in India, in commercial quantities at any rate.
But no matter what might be said about coca-chewing, there can be no two
opinions about the dire and destructive effects of cocaine the alkaloid,
and the results of indulgence in this drug are truly deplorable. It may
be owing to something else in the coca leaves which ameliorates the full
effect of the alkaloid; in fact it must be so, because I doubt whether
even a confirmed cocaine consumer could find anything to say in its
favour.
The first notice of cocaine consuming appears to be that of Col. J.
Watson, who wrote in the _New York Tribune_ about cocaine-sniffing. He
writes: “I have visited some of the Negro bar-rooms in Atlanta, and
the proprietors told me that the cocaine-habit which had been acquired
by the Negroes, was simply driving them out of business. When the
cocaine-habit fixes itself on a person, the desire for liquor is gone,
the victim finding entire satisfaction in sniffing cocaine. By sniffing
cocaine up the nostrils it reaches the brain quicker, and the effect is
more lasting than if swallowed or administered by hypodermic injection.
Persons addicted to the habit say they have tried the two latter ways,
and that the effects are not the same, nor do they afford the same degree
of satisfaction and pleasure as when sniffed. Unquestionably the drug
rapidly affects the brain, and the result has been that, in the south,
the asylums for the insane are overflowing with the unfortunate victims.
After a person has habitually used the poison for a certain length of
time, he becomes mentally irresponsible. No man can use it long and
retain his normal mental condition. It is a brain-wrecker of the worst
kind.”
Cocaine is a highly poisonous narcotic, and when rubbed on the skin,
or injected under it, deadens the surrounding parts, and renders them
insensible to pain. It is therefore much used in minor surgery, and in
ophthalmic and dental operations. As such, it replaces chloroform to some
extent. But, unfortunately, its highly stimulating effects, and its power
to allay hunger, have been taken advantage of by many thousands of people
who have made a habit of taking it, and Col. Watson’s description of the
dire results of cocaine-sniffing apply with equal force to those which
supervene on cocaine-injecting and cocaine-eating, vices that have spread
with alarming rapidity all over the civilized world.
The cocaine-habit is an unmixed vice. There is no excuse for it; not even
the excuse that the opium and morphia habits have, _viz._, accident; and
the person who takes to it, does so wilfully and deliberately. Cocaine
has a greater power over its votaries than either opium or morphia; the
after distress is keener; and a slave to it is a slave indeed. And the
harm it does, and the certainty with which it eventually kills, is truly
appalling.
[Illustration: A BURMAN COCAINE EATER]
Extreme poverty is frequently a cause of the habit. The abject wretch
who becomes possessed of a few coppers, realizing that the amount will
be insufficient for a square meal, buys an innocent looking packet of
cocaine, and mixing it with a small quantity of the lime-paste used
by betel-chewers in their quids, smears the mixture on his gums, and
slowly swallows the saliva. Gone are the cravings for food; a feeling of
pleasant warmth suffuses his wasted body; he feels equal to any exertion.
Images are distorted to immense proportions; the stick he holds becomes a
club of huge dimensions, and he takes great pride in his ability to wield
it so easily; an empty jam-tin lying near assumes the proportions of a
five-gallon milk-can; and he takes great pleasure in showing his agility
in jumping high over the threshold of the door! In all, he considers
himself to be a very fine, powerful, prepossessing fellow indeed—until
the effects wear off, and he once more sets off to beg or steal the price
of another dose of this elevating narcotic.
I once knew a European who was addicted to this drug—he injected it—and a
more pitiable object it would be difficult to conceive. He was a dentist
by profession, and the last I heard of him was that he had died by his
own hand, a frequent termination of this habit, which produces in its
last stages, a sort of morbid, gloomy, mania or insanity in its victims.
This individual was the victim of all kinds of hallucinations, and under
the influence of the drug, was a fluent, and often convincing, liar.
He invested himself with numerous medical degrees; he went in terror of
imaginary assailants; and he had a fixed idea that his meagre belongings
were the envy of murderous burglars. So much so, that on more than one
occasion he fired off the revolver he carried by day, and placed under
his pillow by night, at imaginary intruders, to the no small risk of
other occupants of the house he lived in. The tales of personal adventure
he related, the accounts he gave of deadly combats with men twice his
puny size, his stories of his property and wealth at home, were the
wonder of all to whom he told them, and who were unable to discover in
him the characteristic effects of the fell drug cocaine.
We are unfortunately without complete information about cocaine, but we
know enough about it to realize that the habit is spreading with the
rapidity and devastating effects of a conflagration over the world. As
far as India and Burma are concerned, the law is stringent and severe,
and the Dangerous Drugs Bill, which was lately occupying the attention of
the Home Government, goes far on the road to bringing things at home into
line with India and Burma.
The Germans discovered a method by which cocaine can be manufactured
synthetically; and bogey hunters will discover a deep plot to undermine
the physique and morals of Indians when they are told that the synthetic
manufacture of cocaine is, to all intents and purposes, a state-aided
industry. It is classed as an industry, and as such receives the spirit
used in the preparation of the synthetic drug, duty-free. Ninety per
cent. of the cocaine imported into this country before the war came from
Germany.
It would probably surprise the Darmstadt firm, which purveyed almost all
the cocaine that came to Burma, if they knew that their drachm-phials,
neatly capsuled, and labelled “Cocaine Hydrochloride,” ought really
sometimes to have been labelled “Antefebrin,” for that indeed is what
a great number that were seized by the authorities contained. In
appearance, cocaine and antefebrin are hard to distinguish from one
another; and for a long time the results of analyses led the authorities
to suppose that the manufacturers were defrauding their eastern
constituents; but the discovery of a complete plant consisting of phials,
labels, capsules, and a large quantity of antefebrin, eventually cleared
the name of the doubtless reputable manufacturers, and fastened the guilt
upon local swindling smugglers.