COCA, the dried leaf of Erythroxylom coca, is one of those stimulating narcotics which belong to the same class with tobacco and opium, but is more remarkable than either of them in its effects upon the human system. The plant is found wild in Peru, according to POppig, in the environs of Cuchero, and on the stony summit of Cerro de San Cristobal. It is cultivated extensively in the mild but very moist climate of the Andes of Peru, at from 2000 to 5000 feet above the sea : in colder situations it is apt to be killed, and in warmer districts the leaf loses its flavour.
The effects of this drug are Said to be of the most pernicious nature, exceeding even opium in the destruction of mental and bodily powers. The coca leaf is chewed by the Peruvian, mixed with finely powdered chalk, and brings on a state of apathy and indif ference to all surrounding objects. The desire for this drug increases so much with indulgence in it, that a confirmed coca-chewer is said never to have been reclaimed.
The immoderate addiction of the Peruvians to the use of this drug is such that their forests have long since ceased to be able to supply their wants ; and the cultivation of the plant has been carried to a very great extent, not only under the Incas but beneath the local government of the Spaniards, who seem to have been no more able to resist the temp tation of a largo revenue from the monopoly of this article than European nations from the consumption of ardent spirits. The cultivation of coca is therefore an important feature in Peruvian husbandry.
The exciting principle of the coca has so very volatile a nature that leaves only twelve months old become perfectly inert and good for nothing. Large heaps of the freshly dried leaves, particularly while the warm rays of the sun are upon them, diffuse a very strong smell resembling that of hay in which there is a quantity of melilot.