Coca

made into a bolus, which they call acuUico, and which must be chewed in order to extract from the leaves their active principle. He attributes to the cocaine the effects which the chewed leaf produces on the body. Cocaine is a nitrogenous alkaloid, able to neutralize acids, and which forms with them crystallizable salts, especially with acetic and hydrochloric acids, and whose atomic formula is C1GH20NO4, and an equivalent of water. The action which Uijota produces on the coca is thus perfectly explained; the cocaine existing in a state of combination with organic acids, any alkali or alkaline carbonate will loosen it from its combination, thus favouring its solution in the saliva, and its ultimate absorption. As cocaine is very soluble in alcohol, and especially so in ether, the best pharmaceutic preparation of coca will be the etherial alcoholic tincture. With the object of making observations worthy of credit, lie made experiments on his own person and on a medical student, who willingly lent himself for experimentation. Wishing specially to discover its influence on tissue waste, at the same time they made