Drug Abuse

CHAPTER V OUR VARIOUS PREPARATIONS OF COCA

 

IMMEDIATELY after the importation of the Coca leaf into Europe, we conceived the plan, the outcome of the request of tnany physicians, of making preparations from Coca. Vin Mariani. —Elixir Mariani.—Peite Mariani.—The Mariani.—Pastilles Mariani, etc. (The author's name was kindly added to his preparations by the medical profession, who had recognized the superiority of his products.)

These different preparations had been used by our greatest practitioners long before the discovery, or rather the application of Cocaine.

The results obtained were marvelous, and the innumerable letters which were addressed to us by physicians who experimented with and used our products and rendered accounts in the medical journals in all parts of the world, would fill a large volume.

Under the esteemed patronage of our greatest medical celebrities, our preparations are known all over the world; they have reached all classes of society and everywhere, in the large cities as in the small villages, men, women, children, in fact, convalescents of all ages now know the name of the salutary plant, which it is and has been our effort to popularize, though strictly so according to the code of medical ethics and by those channels approved of by the entire medical profession.

We shall now consider the different ways in which we use Peruvian Coca, and which under the well-known forms of vin, elixir, pate, and of thé Mariani, have received such universal recognition. We will show incidentally the esteem in which these preparations are held by the highest medical authorities.

VIN MARIANI

This is the first of the preparations of Coca and the one most generally adopted; to the tonic and stimulant action of the drug there is added that of a choice quality of wine.

The Vin Coca Mariani contains the soluble parts of the Peruvian plant. The combination of Coca, with the tannin and the slight traces of iron which this wine naturally contains is pronounced the most efficacious of tonics.

The Coca leaves that we employ after careful selection come from three different sources and are of incomparable quality. It is this that gives to our wine that special taste and agreeable aroma which renders it so acceptable to the sick.

It is likewise to the combination of these three varieties of Coca leaf in our wine that we can attribute this important fact: during almost 30 years, no matter in how large doses taken, Vin Mariani has never produced cocainism.

I (We caution especially against the many so-called Coca wines made with the alkaloid Cocaine.)

Vin Mariani is a diffusable tonic, the action of which is immediate. This action, instead of being localized on a single organ, the stomach, spreads to the whole system. Taken into the circulation, it awakens in its course the retarded functions of every organ, and this is owing to the presence in our preparation of the volatile principles of the plant.

Unlike other tonics, the astringent properties of which lead at length to heat and constipation, Vin Mariani does not produce any disorder of the digestive functions; it stimulates them, exerts a refreshing action on the gastric mucous membrane, and on that account so advantageously replaces the preparations of cinchona, iron, strychnine, etc.

" There is," says Dr. Mallez, " a form of anaemia to which the attention of physicians has not yet been called, and which yields marvelously to the employment of Vin Mariani; we allude to that state of profound depression of the economy, of extremely marked impoverishment of the blood, which also results from the prolonged abuse of balsamics in the treatment of diseases of the urinary passages.

" The number of persons who, attacked with blennorrhagia, use cubebs, copaiba, turpentine, etc., to a deplorable extent is considerable. So true is this that, out of a hundred young dyspeptics, we may affirm without fear of being in error that at least forty of them have become so by the use of balsamics.

" In like manner, the number of patients affected with urinary gravel whom the prolonged and excessive use of the agents just mentioned, has rendered dyspeptic and then neuropathic is enormous. Like the former, they owe the profound disorder of their digestive functions to the immoderate use of resins and oleo-resins.

" It is of the first importance, therefore, to relieve these persons by making them take, after having given them light laxatives and some preparations intended to strengthen the stomach, not iron, not cinchona, not, as we have said above, local tonics, which would be of little if any use, but diffusible tonics, that is to say, those that act upon the local condition and at the same time upon the general condition, and which, moreover, do not constipate.

" It is here that Vin Mariani proves its great advantage and succeeds where other tonics have failed, in stimulating the functions of the stomach. On the one hand by the small quantity of tannin which it contains, on the other through the active principles of Coca, associated with the wine, which serves as a vehicle, exciting the vitality of each organ separately, not, however, without having previously exerted its vivifying action on the mucous membrane of the stomach itself." (Gazette des Hopitaux, Nov. 23, 18'77.)

The analgesic properties of Vin Mariani have received a happy application in clinical laryngoscopy by Dr. Ch. Fauvel. This eminent specialist has made use of it for the past twenty-six years with unvarying success in all affections of the laryngeal mucous membrane, the air passages, and the vocal organs. In granular angina it takes the place of the topical medication and cauterizations which are so often injurious when they are used indiscriminately and to excess.

The employment of Vin Mariani rapidly relieves patients of the feeling of heat and tingling which is one of the most annoying symptoms of this very common disease of the throat. (Gazette des Hopitaux, May 12, 1877.)

Dr. Beverley Robinson recommends Yin Mariani as a heart tonic.

Dr. W. H. Pancoast says that Vin Mariani is a valuable preparation and a tonic of the highest merit.

Dr. Jules Bouvyer, of Cauteretz, employs it with success in certain affections of the larynx as an adjuvant to the sulphurous treatment.

In 1875, in his Traitement rationnel de la phthisie pulmonaire, Dr. de Pietra Santa said, page 394 :

" Among the most renowned practitioners of Paris, Nan, Barth, G. See, and Cabrol have promptly adopted the preparations of Coca. Ch. Fauvel prescribes it in affections of the respiratory passages. It is in these diseases that I, too, have had occasion to advise its daily use in the most convenient, the most agreeable, and the most active form—that of the Vin Tonique de Mariam:"

Thus has been realized Revell's prediction : " This substance (Coca) is destined to take an important rank in therapeutics."

In the Revue de Therapeutic meldicaux-chirurgicale, June. 11, 1878, page 381. Bibliographie : Dictionnaire Encyclapedique des sciences medicales, par A. Dechambre, Dr. H. Cottin thus closes his article:

" In France, we are using a great deal of Coca wine, and it is tending to take the place of all other tonic wines; it is borne a longer time by the stomach and is more agreeable to the palate. M. Mariani has contributed much to the popularization of Coca by the perfection of his preparations, vin, the, ellixir and pate. These are the forms at present most employed."

Dr. Chapusot, of Paris, thus sums up his personal observations : " A claret glass of this wine has always been enough to make me forget hunger and to sustain my strength; I have felt a grateful warmth and a general exaltation of the economy; the digestion of the following meal has always been easier than if I had not taken the Vin Mariani, and, although I had not such a ravenous appetite as if I had gone without it, I ate a good deal, the stomach appearing stronger and more active."

It wa.s Dr. Ch. Fauvel who gave our wine the very striking and exact title of " Tensor of the vocal cords." He says : " Thanks to Vin Mariani, I have been able to restore the voice of many lyric artists who would have been unable without this potent agent to give their performances." .

Dr. J. Leonard Corning, in Brain Exhaustion, New York, 1884, pages 78 and 112, says : " Of all the medicaments that I employ in the very numerous cases of irritability, Vito Mariani has rendered the greatest service. I do not except even the bromides, for this preparation of Coca possesses the calmative properties of those salts without producing the unpleasant depression which characterizes them."

The same author continues :

" The Vin Mariani' is the remedy par excellence for ennui.

At the same time it produces a fortifying action on the cerebral center and gives rise to a decided sensation of well being.

Dr. Morell Mackenzie, London, advises the Vin Mariani as a stimulant and tonic, and uses it especially with speakers and singers.

9 HARLEY STREET,

CAVENDISH SQUARE, W., LONDON.

GENTLEMEN:- I have much pleasure in stating that I have used the Vin Mariani for many years, and consider it a valuable stimulant, particularly serviceable in the cases of vocalists.

Yours faithfully,
MORELL MACKENZIE, M. D.

Professor Sajous, of Philadelphia, who has experimented with Vin Mariani in troubles of the vocal organs, has obtained excellent results from its use, and he advises it, not only as a restorative of the voice, but as a general tonic.

Dr. Libermann, Surgeon in-Chief, French Army, communicates his experience, as follows:

" I have the honor to inform you of the results which I have obtained in my long career of military practice from the use of Vin Mariani:

" I have used it with great success for profound anmmia resulting from long and tedious campaigns in hot countries, and accompanied, as is nearly always the case, by gastro-intestinal irritation with loss of appetite and dyspepsia. Two or three Bordeaux glasses of Vin

Mariani daily, removed that condition quite rapidly, by restoring the appetite and the tolerance of the stomach for a tonic aliment.

" I have also employed it in cases, happily rare in our army, of chronic alcoholism resulting from the abuse of brandy, absinthe or strong liquors. The Vin Mariani produced all the excitement sought by drinkers, but had at the same time a sedative influence on their nervous systems. I have frequently seen hardened drinkers renounce their fatal habit and return to a healthy condition.

" I have also used Vin Mariani to save smokers of exaggerated habits, from nicotinism. A few glasses of Vin Nariani taken in small doses, either pure or mixed with water, acted as a substitute for pipes and cigars, because the smokers found in it the cerebral excitement which they sought in tobacco, wholly preserving their intellectual faculties.

"I have also employed it with success for chronic bronchitis and pulmonary phthisis. Vin Nariani increases the appetite and diminishes the cough in these two morbid states.

"To combat the cough I give it mixed with water in the form of tisane, a Bordeaux-glass of Coca wine in a glass of water.

" Besides I have used it to the greatest advantage in convalescence from typhoid fever, when no wine, not even Bordeaux, was retained by the stomach on account of gastric irritation which is the rule after fevers of this nature.

" Although I have confined myself to giving but a rapid glance at the results that I have obtained, I have the statistics, which I keep in reserve should they be needed.

" I can certify that Vin Nariani is the most powerful weapon that can be put in the hands of military physicians to combat the diseases, the infirmities, and even the vicious habits engendered by camp life and the servitude of military existence."

Dr. Villeneuve, among other cases of morphinomania conquered by the combined use of the tette and the Vin Mariani, communicated to us in 1884 the following observation :

" Mr. X      barrister, 32 years of age, five years ago began to use morphine preparations as a remedy against a very alarming chronic bronchitis and granulations in the throat, which were irritated constantly by cigarette smoking.

" The patient at first only used morphine, but his physicians committed the imprudence of treating him by hypodermic injection. A notable change for the better was produced during the first month. but, unfortunately, abuse succeeded promptly the use of the medicament—so much so that when I commenced to treat the patient, he was taking daily from 1 gramme 60 centigrammes to 1 gramme 80 centigrammes of morphine hypodermically. When he was four hours without his dose there appeared insomnia, hallucinations and delirium; constipation lasting sometimes for fifteen days, which brought on in the spring a very alarming perityphlitis, jerking of the muscles, sudden frights, dyspepsia, and at last frightful congestion of the face whenever he drank a drop of wine or brandy.

" After a month's treatment I had succeeded in reducing the daily doses without causing alarming symptoms; the physiological functions seemed to awaken again. However, the congestion and especially the dyspepsia was very grave, and the cough which had been suppressed by morphine returned. It was then that I treated my patient with phosphate of lime, the peke and the Vin Mariani. Lacking his habitual stimulant, he was plunged in a semi-coma from which he could not always be relieved with weaker daily doses of morphine.

" The danger I feared most was a relapse of bronchitis, and that the cough and expectoration might end fatally. But in about a week, during. which he took ten doses of Pate de Coca daily, the cough became less fatiguing and dis-appeared entirely in about twenty days. The patient then commenced to take small doses of Via Mariani (two Madeira-glasses a day). At first congestion appeared, but little by little, as digestion became more easy, my patient, who on account of his profound antemia could not tolerate any table wines, took at first a small glass, then two, then three glasses at a meal. Now he can go and take his dinner in town, which he had not been able to do for three years ; he regained his former vigor, is able to undertake anew his occupations, and has entirely given up his morphine habit."

We will conclude our quotations, already too numerous, with an article by Dr. Scaglia, published in 18'77 in the Gazette des Hopitaux : "La Coca et ses proprietes therapeutiques."

" In anmia, connected with chronic pulmonary affec-tions without fever, and in anmmia accompanied by gas-tralgia, Vim Mariani has an excellent effect. Its stimulat-ing properties can also be admirably made use of in those intermediate states of impaired health which are not yet ansemia, but must in the end become so ; physical or mental overwork, the cerebral weakness due to excess of work or pleasure ; the exhaustion from which the inhabitants of large cities suffer through irregularities of diet and imperfect hygiene owing to their positions and surroundings.

" The moderate use of Vin Mariani is unquestionably of benefit to people of sedentary habits worn out by work, to convalescents who, from a prolonged confinement in bed have lost muscular strength, to patients suffering from diabetes or Bright's disease, whose muscles have lost their elasticity and vigor.

" Let us add that the taste of Vin Mariani is exquisite, that it is in no way suggestive of drugs, and that its use is acceptable to the most fastidious."

Ordinary Dose—Two or three claret-glassfuls daily, half an hour before or immediately after eating.

COCA GROG. —By mixing a wineglassful of Vim Mariani with half a glassful of boiling water, sweetened to the taste, we get a grog of exquisite flavor, and. capable of rendering the greatest services whenever an immediate effect is desired in severe cases of cold, attended by convulsive coughing. (As prescribed by Dr. Libermann.)

ELIXIR MARIANI

The Elixir Mariani is more alcoholic, very agreeable to the taste, and three times as highly charged with the active principles of the Peruvian leaf as the Vin Mariani ; therefore it should be taken in doses of a liqueur-glassful, in the morning upon rising, and after ' the two principal meals.

It may be used clear or mixed with water, in nearly all cases where the Vin Mariani is used. Its tonic and eminently digestive properties and its special aroma, at once mild and penetrating, make it an agreeable liqueur, very much esteemed by gourmets and persons who are careful about their health.

A small glass of the Elixir Mariani taken after a meal, spreads a gentle warmth through the stomach and calls forth an abundant secretion of gastric juice, which mixes with the food and facilitates digestion.

For travelers, hunters, and in general all who walk much and who are exposed to fatigue, to dampness, and to fog, the use of the Elixir Mariani may be recom-mended and will render admirable service, because of the tone and strength that it gives to the stomach and to the muscles.

Dr. Collins, Revue de Therapulic, observes that this liqueur acts " heroically " in anxmia, chlorosis and rickets.

Dr. Ch. Fauvel, Dr. Conqueret, Dr. Villeneuve, Dr. Cha-pusot, Dr. Odin, Dr. Cintrat and others declare as the result of their clinical observations that the Elixir Mariani exerts a " masterly action" in granular pharyngitis, quinsy, and albuminuria, and that its stimulating properties on the whole nervous system cannot be denied.

Dr. J. Leonard Corning, of New York, recommends the Elixir Mariani a.s a strengthener of the brain.

" As a remedy in sea-sickness, the Elixir Mariani has always given excellent results."—Dr. Blant, Dr. Letellier, Dr. Trossat, Dr. Derrecagaix.
The Elixir Mariani is generally prescribed in doses of a liqueur-glassful after the principal meals. Mixed with cold water, in the proportion of two liqueur-glassfuls to a tum-bler of water, it constitutes a very strengthening and pleas-ant drink.

PATE MARIANI (LOZENGES OF COCA)

Tonic and pectoral, Pate Mariani is a Lozenge very agreeable to the taste, which is prescribed daily with the greatest success by throat specialists for obstinate coughs, granular catarrh of the throat, and the various inflamma-tions of the digestive and respiratory passages. Composed only of clarified g-um, sugar and Coca, without a trace of opium or of any narcotic substances, it may be taken with-out danger at any hour of the day and in any quantity, without fear of its disturbing the digestion, since, on the contrary, it can only aid it. From six to ten of the Loz-enges daily are the usual dose, but more may be taken if necessary.

Its beneficial action is due to the happy combination of the emolient properties of pure gum-arabic and the tonic, astringent and analgesic properties of Coca.

" Pate Mariani has a powerful tonic action on the larynx, and, like Vin Mariani, it is invaluable in cases of aphonia caused by feebleness or relaxation of the vocal cords. This property is of special advantage to singers and orators. Rite Marienti is a very valuable substitute in granular catarrh of the throat and throat affections in general, for chlorate of potassium pastilles and the various lozenges containing opium, etc., the Pdte Mariani is more agreeable to the taste and produces anaesthetic and soothing effects." (Gazette des Hopitaux.)

PASTILLES MARIANI (COCA AND COCAINE)

The Pastilles Mariani are used in the same cases as the Rite, from which they differ only by the addition of two milligrammes of Cocaine hydrochlorate to each pastille.

Their action is much more intense and more rapid than that of the Coca paste.

The paroxysms of cough which are so frequent and so annoying to those who smoke tobacco to excess, are over. come as if by enchantment by the use of a few pastilles.

Dose--Four to eight daily. This amount, however, may be exceeded, at the discretion of the physicians.

THE MARIANI, OR CONCENTRATED EXTRACT OF COCA (TEA MARIANI)

As its name indicates, Mariani's concentrated extract of Coca, or TV Mariani, contains within a small bulk all the active principles of the Coca leaf. This extract, prepared in special apparatuses which prevent all alteration and pre-serve all its properties and all its aroma, answers entirely in the various modes of using Coca and constitutes a most scrupulously exact preparation in dose, the most conven-ient and the most active ,that could be desired.

The/ Mariani is capable of indefinite preservation and easy of transportation ; it renders great service to persons who make mountain ascensions, fatig-uing marches, or long journeys through unhealthy countries, and in fact in what-ever may be called fatiguing work or pleasure.

The' Mariani may be taken in the dose of from three to six teaspoonfuls in the course of the day, clear, or mixed with brandy, wine, water or milk, etc., hot or cold, in the latter cases sweetened to taste, if desired.

COCA TEA OR INFUSION. — A teaspoonful of the Thl Mariani, added to a cup of hot water, sweetened to the taste, with or without the addition of cream or milk, makes a very agreeable drink, more digestive, more tonic, and less exciting than coffee or tea, while possessing in a higher degree the tonic and stimulating properties of those two substances.

It is in this form that Coca is especially used in Peru and Bolivia, where it is preferred to the Chinese tea.

Persons who drink Chinese tea at meals may advan-tageously substitute the Thl Mariard for it.

For patients who cannot generally take milk, it is ad-visable to add Pse Mariam'. Excellent results will be obtained.

COCA GARGLES AND SPRAYS.—Independently of its tonic and reconstituent action, Coca possesses anwsthetic and soothing properties that have been observed and made use of in practice by laryngologists in the form of a spray, in the proportion of a teaspoonful of Tin' Mariani to half a glassful of warm water.

An ambulance physician of Tonkin, who has experi-mented with The( Marsani, sends the following note :

" The Mariani has rendered us real service during expe-ditions as well as in hospital practice ; on the march it makes with boiled water, with or without the addition of sugar, a very agreeable, tonic and stitnulating drink ; a veritable reserve food, it takes the place of alcoholic drinks and insufficiency of food, and aids the men in bearing the most distressing fatigue. The water of swanips, rivers or ditches, mixed with a few spoonfuls of The Mariani, could be drank without any inconvenience, and assuaged thirst.

" The' Mariani stimulates the appetite, overcomes atony of the digestive organs, and prevents and combats diarrhcea efficiently.

" Mixed in small quantity with fresh or condensed milk, it gives it an agreeable taste and causes it to be borne by the most delicate stomachs; hence it becomes a valuable adjuvant in the treatment of the endemic dysen-teries and diarrhceas of tropical countries.

" Finally, its exclusive use, even its excessive use for several days, has not seemed to us to exert any injuri-ous influence on the system, as the abuse of coffee or of alcoholic drinks had certainly done under like circum-stances."

Dr. Fordyce Barker, Dr. J. H. Douglas, Dr. Henry B. Sands and Dr. Geo. F. Shrady have authorized us to make known that it was due to The Mariam', added to milk (in the proportion of a teaspoonful of the The to a cup of milk), that they were able to nourish Gen. Grant, the ex. President, when he was unable to support any other food. By this means they succeeded in prolonging the life of their illustrious patient for several months. ,

Coca taken in infusion gave excellent results to Tschudy while be was sojourning in the valley of the Puna, the highest in Bolivia, which has given its name to the disease of mountain sickness, known in Peru by the name Mal de Puna, also designated by the words sorrochr,veta and mare° ; this last term shows clearly enough the analogy which exists between sea-sickness and the influence of great alti-tudes on the human body. Experience has proved the usefulness of Coca against dyspncea and vomiting, so that the Indians who make ascensions always carry a stock of I Coca with them. Dr. Tschudy found himself comfortable by the use of it while hunting in those valleys, at a height of ten to twelve thousand feet above the sea.

Dr. Salemi, of Nice, gives an account of a case of epi-lepsy in a woman, 38 years of age, cured by the daily and prolonged use of Thl Mariani, given in increasing doses (ten drops daily at first and eighty drops daily at the end of a month). This case is not an isolated one.

"NEW REMEDIES."

Thus concludes this interesting article by Dr. Henry Schweig :

" When, two years ago, attention was called by Koller to the anmsthetizing power of a solution of Cocaine when ap-plied to mucous surfaces, fresh interest was created in the plant from which the alkaloid is derived. I do not aesire to encroach on my limited space by detailing the various experiences of observers who, from time to time, studied the effects of the administration of Coca leaves or their extract. Suffice it to say that, while some authors extol the virtues of the plant, others fail to find anything in its action which would justify them in according it a place among our remedial agents.

" Here, again, the same objection already mentioned—viz., the improper preparation of the substance employed, as well as an inferior quality of the crude drug (the leaves in this case)—serves as an explanation of „the difference in results obtained.

" In a series of experiments conducted by me (in private as well as dispensary practice), looking to a clearer under-standing of the value of Coca in laryngeal complications, (1) I have arrived at conclusions which justify me in saying that not alone is Coca a valuable addition to our therapeutic armamentarium, but a drug which can be almost absolutely relied upon to exert its specific action in certain disorders of the upper respiratory tract.

" In that distressing condition in which the tensors of the vocal band are at fault, when there is phonatory leakage and an impairment of ability to produce the higher tones, Coca can be relied upon to give prompt relief, if not permanently, at least temporarily. It is understood, of course, that I here refer only to those cases in which there is want of ' nervous force,' and not where there is paresis due to organic changes.

" Vocalists and public speakers frequently complain of the distressing sequelse of follicular pharyngitis which manifest themselves when the voice is inordinately ex-erted. The irritation of the throat in these cases is sometimes quite marked. The enlarged follicles, as also the large patches where the follicles have coalesced, be. come turgid and deeply red, the tendency to cough is increased, and the voice, which may have been previ-ously clear, becomes veiled and thin. There is a feeling of constriction present, painful as well as alarming to the patient. Coca in these cases, when exhibited in its proper form, is prompt in its effects, and can be ad-ministered in suitable quantities for many months, or even years, without producing any of those objectionable symptoms attributed to it.

" Dyspncea due to laryngeal refiexes is often relieved by Coca, the first dose being a full one, and small doses follow-ing at short intervals to sustain the effect produced in the first instance.

"I have frequently observed that a sustained effort in the matter of singing, lecturing, etc., will produce a con-dition of ' fatigue ' of the voice, in which there is no appreciable change in the appearance of the vocal ap-paratus, but which, nevertheless, interferes in a marked degree with the proper use of the voice. Whether this state is due to over-exertion of the laryngeal or pharyn-geal muscles, or whether irritation of the terminal nerve filaments of the upper air passages stands in ca.usative relation thereto, be this as it may, Coca stands pre-emi-nently forth as the only remedy which in my hands has given relief. True, I have many failures to record, but can trace them directly to either the manner of exhibiting the remedy or its inferior quality. (1) If the effect desired is a prompt one, a decided impression should be made by the first dose, and this, as stated above, can be sustained by smaller doses frequently repeated.

" The vagaries and wild delusions of writers (non-pro-fessional, of course) for the daily press have done much to poison the popular mind regarding Coca, and this often proves a serious drawback to the physician. The few cases in which ' Cocaine ' has been abused have served as a basis for launching forth a wild and wholesale condem-nation of a valuable drug. Not one instance has come to my knowledge in which any preparation of Coca, intelligently employed, except the alkaloid, has produced even the faintest toxic symptoms. As well discard mor-phia, chloral, cannabis indica, and the bromides, for the reason that they count the victims to their abuse by the thousands every year. All potent medicinal agents are placed in our hands to be intelligently and temper-ately employed, not to excess, and the medical man who would hesitate to call to his aid a medicinal agent for no other reason than that it is abused, should be, in my estimation, classed with that horde of fanatics who would interdict the use of alcoholics on the ground of their abuse by a small minority of the population."—New York Medical Afonthly, October, 1886.

IMPORTANT CAUTION
Owing to the success obtained by our preparations of Coca for many years, imitators and counterfeiters have dared to apply to their own valueless productions the observations made with our special products. These occur-rences, often repeated, have given rise to protests from many physicians, among others Dr. W. Oliver Moore, Sir More11 Mackenzie, Dr. Ch. Fauvel.

To the Editor of the New York Medical Journal :

SIR: In your issue of January 3,1f386, page19, in a report of a paper read before the New York Medical Society, on " The Physiological and Therapeutical Effects of the Coca Leaf a.nd its Alkaloid," occurs the following : " For over twenty years Dr. Fauvel has used it, both internally in the form of Vin Mariani, and also by local applications to the pharynx and larynx in spray or by brush, in the form of a fluid extract, or, tnore recently, of a concentrated non-alcoholic preparation more of the nature of a cordial (pre-pared by Mariani & Co.)."

Several manufacturers of Coca preparations have taken occasion to quote from this paper, each in turn substituting the name of his own production instead of the one men-tioned in the original.

As the preparations of Coca mentioned in my paper were personally tested and found to be the best of a large num-ber experimented with, I wish to 'call attention to these misquotations and substitutions.

Very truly,
W. OLIVER MOORE, M.D.

4...41 We have taken the trouble to compare the report of Dr. Moore's remarks with the little book on Coca prepared by M. Mariani, and with the circulars issued by a number of manufacturers of Coca preparations ; and we certainly think that some of these manufacturers have taken an un-warrantable liberty in appropriating work that evidently cost M. Mariani a good deal of time and,no little outlay of money.—EDITOR.

New York Medical Jourrsal, October 24, i885.

" In another column we publish a letter from Dr. W. Oliver Moore, calling attention to an injustice that certain competing pharraacists have practiced toward Messrs. Mariani & Co., in ' pirating ' published records of the suc-cessful use of the Mariani preparations of Coca, and at the same time craftily making these records appear to apply to their own preparations. It is very much to be regretted that a house that has been so punctilious in avoiding even the semblance of any offense against the courtesy of trade should have been treated in this shabby way by some rival manufacturers."

31 RUE GUgNEGAUD, PARIS, Dec. 8, 1887. To the Editor of the New York Medical Journal:

SIR—Will you kindly have it announced in your jour-nal, in justice to myself before the medical profession, that the various notices appearing in journals and cir-culars quoting my name in connection with Coca are entirely false and in every respect a prevarication? The only preparation of Coca employed by me with un-doubted and uniform success has been the so-well-known Vin Mariam*, which, since 1866, I have had occasion to prescribe daily in my clinic, as well as in private prac-tice. My opinion of this valuable medicament has, dur-ing many years, been frequently made known for the benefit of the profes.sion in various writings, and it is but just to this worthy preparation that it receive all the honor due it. I thank you for compliance with my request.

CH. FAUVEL.

A gracious compliment has been paid M. Mariani for the high standard and excellence of his preparations, not only by the numerous honorable mentions and in-dorsements by the prominent members of the medical profession and those who have had occasion to use his Coca preparations, but latterly through the following awards:

Gold Medal and Silver Medal from the Academie Na-tionale de France ; Gold Medal and a Grand Diploma of Honor from the Wine Exhibit of Bordeaux, France ; Gold Medal and a Diploma of Honor at the Hygienic Exhibit at Amsterdam, Holland, and a Gold Medal and Diploma at Leamington, England, the jury surnaming his Vire " Wine for Athletes."

We request those physicians, who kindly place confi-dence in our preparations, to prescribe them under the name of Mariani, and to insist that their prescriptions be scrupu-lously executed.

(1; My attention was first called to Coca as applied to laryngeal diseases by the late Dr. Louis Moberg, as well as by the writings of Charles Fauvel and Mora Mackenzie.

(2)The only preparations which have given me uniformly good results are those of Mons. Mariani, of Paris.

< Prev		Next >