Coca

Coca has been used for centuries by natives of West South America as an

intoxicant; and also as a remedy for "Veta," the condition induced in persons on coming to live

in high tablelands:—faintness, throbbing heart and head, dysentery, &c. It is like tea and coffee in

arresting tissue-change, and enabling those who take it to undergo unusual fatigues. Like China

it produces ringing in the ears and deafness and also fever. The alkaloid Cocaine 1s the well-

known local anesthetic. A characteristic symptom of Cocaine poisoning is a sensation as if small

foreign bodies were under the skin, generally like grains of sand; or else as of a worm under the

skin. This is undoubtedly the keynote symptom of Coca. It is known as "Magnan's Symptom,"

named after the eminent neurologist who first described it. His description is "a sensation as if

foreign bodies were under the skin, generally small round substances like grains of sand."

Korkasoff reports a case of multiple neuritis in which this symptom was present. The patient was

a woman who was being treated for a uterine affection by means of vaginal tampons containing

Cocaine. A discontinuance of these caused the disappearance of the symptom. Cooper cured a

case of chronic rheumatism in an aged woman who had this symptom, with the fraction of a

• ▸grain of Cocaine given in single doses at long intervals.
• ▸Dr.
• ▸J.
• ▸W.
• ▸Springthorpe described (H.
• ▸W.
• ▸,

February, 1896) a variety of this symptom experienced by himself, and recorded in a paper

entitled "The Confessions of a Cocainist." He called it "Hunting the Cocaine bug." "You

imagine," he says, "that in your skin are worms, or similar things, moving along. If you touch

them with wool, and especially with absorbent wool, they run away and disappear, only to peep

cautiously out of some corner to see if there is any danger. These worms are projected only on

the Cocainist's own person or clothing. He sees them on his linen, in his skin, creeping along his

penholder, but not on other people or things, and not on clothes brought clean from the laundry."

In a case reported in Lancet, June, 1886, a man who had a 4 per cent. solution of Cocaine applied

to a tooth, swallowed twenty to thirty drops of the solution. Half an hour after, he was seized

with: (/) Feeling of faintness and giddiness; (2) next, an attack of palpitation with a sense of

flushing, especially up the back. There was marked diminution of smell; great difficulty in

producing vomiting; a scarlatina-like rash over the body, especially about the neck; dimness of

vision; relaxation of sphincters and weakness of extremities; the mind remained clear, but the

pulse was fast, weak and intermittent. A striking case was recorded in the British Medical

Journal of December 13, 1890: "At a meeting of the Paris Académie de Médecine on December

2nd, M. Hallopeau presented a communication, in which, after distinguishing two forms of

cocaine poisoning-namely, the acute, in which the symptoms are produced immediately after a

dose and speedily pass off, and the chronic, in which they are due to the prolonged use of the

drug—he related a case which in his opinion showed that the poisonous effects, while coming on

acutely, might last for a considerable time. On March 7, 1890, a man had about eight

milligrammes of hydrochlorate of cocaine injected into his gum as a preliminary to the extraction

of a tooth. Toxic symptoms at once supervened. There was intense precordial oppression, with

thready pulse, extreme excitement and loquacity; the patient walked about the room, hitting out

at random with his fists and crying out that he was dying. In ten minutes he became quiet and the

tooth was extracted, after which he was able to walk home, arriving there however, in a state of

extreme prostration. Then ensued a train of nervous symptoms, such as continual headache,

intractable sleeplessness, bad taste in the mouth, with occasional attacks of excitement

accompanied by giddiness, faintness, and a sense of impending death. All brain work was

impossible; the patient could not do the simplest sum in arithmetic, and was in a state of

profound depression. A sense of formication and numbness in the hands and forearms was

almost incessant. This condition lasted four months, and it was two months after the injection

before the least improvement was observed, and then progress towards recovery was very slow.

M. Hallopeau thinks the symptoms indicate a poisonous action of cocaine on the nervous centres,

and especially the brain. As it is impossible to suppose that so small a quantity of the drug should

have remained in the circulation, he is driven to conclude either that it was stored up in the cells

of certain nervous centres or that it produced in them persistent lesions." Homceopaths have no

such difficulty in understanding the prolonged effect of a single dose. Among other effects

observed from its use in dentistry are "mental depression and drowsiness," and "intense

oppression in chest; dilatation of pupils; acceleration of pulse and breathing, and mental

• ▸excitement.
• ▸" W.
• ▸J.
• ▸Guernsey quotes in H.
• ▸P.
• ▸, November, 1888, from Med.
• ▸Register, August 11,

• ▸1888, the experience of J.
• ▸E.
• ▸Shadle, who applied pledgets of a 4 per cent.
• ▸solution of Cocaine to

the nasal cavities of a man of 35, preparatory to operation. On each occasion he complained of a

"cold, 'gone,' relaxed feeling about the external genitals, and a sensation as if the penis were

absent. Towards the end of treatment he noticed a permanent weakness of the sexual organs, and

finally seminal losses and impotence set in and continued until the Cocaine was entirely

• ▸withheld.
• ▸" Compare this with the experiences of R.
• ▸K.
• ▸Ghosch (#7.
• ▸R.
• ▸, vi.
• ▸15, 49) with Coca @

(which he finds, in drop doses, act better in such cases than in the potencies) in palpitation and

dyspnoea on ascending, when arising from nervous causes, especially self-abuse; in complaints

from self-abuse generally; excessive secretion of urine with or without sugar; enuresis nocturna;

nymphomania after childbirth, during menses, from irritation of eczema or other affections of the

vulva; in satyriasis. The homceopathicity of Coca in enuresis is shown by its effect in relaxing

the sphincters in one of the cases named above. There are some characteristic headaches of

Coca. In general "headaches of high altitudes" may be taken as a strong indication. Coca has also

a "tight" headache, as if a rubber band were stretched across the forehead. After the invigorating

effects, the sense of lightness and ability to climb a mountain without fatigue, have passed off, or

when the intoxication has been carried to a further degree, a sense of heaviness, numbness, and

drowsiness succeeds, with a disinclination to move. There is extreme weariness, and especially

weakness of the legs. A peculiar symptom is: Sensation as if cesophagus would be rent by force

of rising flatus. Coca suits persons who are wearing out under mental and physical strain;

bashful, timid people; old people; short-breathed people; effects of dissipation; weakly, nervous,

fat or plethoric people; children with marasmus. Effects of cold; cough from cold air;

rheumatism from slightest cold. Symptoms < climbing, walking or sitting; < cold air.

Melancholy; bashful, ill at ease in society, irritable, delights in solitude and obscurity. Sense of right and wrong abolished.

Melancholy.—Hypochondriasis.—Mental depression with

drowsiness.—Bashfulness.—Prefers solitude and darkness ——Muddled feeling in brain —Loss of

energy.—Great mental excitement.

• ▸Fainting fit from climbing mountains.
• ▸Shocks coming from occiput with vertigo.
• ▸Noises in ear.
• ▸Headache with vertigo, preceded by flashes of light.
• ▸Like a band across forehead.
• ▸Diplopia.
• ▸Tongue furred.

Headaches of high altitudes. Tinnitus.

Vertigo and fainting —Tension over forehead as from a rubber band.—Headache just

over eyebrows; not constant; < raising head or turning eyes up.—Shocks in head; dull, full feeling

in occiput with vertigo, < lying down, the only possible position is on the face —Occiput painful,

tender to touch; pains < on coughing.—Headache with chilliness; with dryness in throat; > after

eating; > at sunset.

Intolerance of light with dilated pupils.—Dark cloud before eyes; eyes deeply reddened

until bloody tears gushed out.—White, dark, and fiery spots before eyes; flickering or

flashing.—Indistinct vision soon followed by headache and nausea.—Aching pain behind eyes

causing feeling as if squinting inwards.

• ▸Peppery sensation in mouth.
• ▸Longing for alcoholic liquors and tobacco.
• ▸Great satiety for a long time.
• ▸Incarcerated flatus; rises with noise and violence, as if it would split the oesophagus.
• ▸Tympanitic distention of abdomen.
• ▸No appetite but for sweets.

• ▸Retards hunger and thirst.
• ▸—Loss of appetite esp.
• ▸for solid food.
• ▸—Craves spirits

and tobacco.—Ailments from salt food.—Flatus rises with such force, it seems as if oesophagus

would be rent by it—Empty feeling or full feeling in stomach.—Confirmed dyspepsia, esp. in

hypochondriacs.

Pressure and tension in hypochondria after meals.—Flatulence.—Violent

bellyache, with tympanitic distension.

Flatus from bowels, smells like burnt

• ▸gunpowder.
• ▸—Dysentery.
• ▸—Constipation from inactivity of rectum; stools dry; like walnuts.
• ▸—Piles

painful on walking or sitting —Sphincters relaxed.

Fine stitches in female urethra before urinating.—Frequent desire, with

• ▸increased flow.
• ▸—Disturbed frequently at night —Nocturnal enuresis.
• ▸—Film on urine.
• ▸—Urine

smells like sweat.—Yellowish red flocculent deposits; oily scum on surface.

Menses flow in gushes awakening her from sound

sleep.—Nymphomania, during menses; and after parturition.

Diabetes, with impotency (Phos ac).

Sensation as if penis were absent.—Coldness, "gone" sensation,

relaxation of external parts—Emissions.—Nervous prostration from sexual

excess.—Spermatorrhcea and partial impotence.—Satyriasis.

• ▸Hawking of small, transparent pieces of mucus.
• ▸Weak vocal cords.
• ▸Hoarseness; worse after talking.
• ▸Want of breath, short breath, especially in aged athletes, and alcoholic users.
• ▸Haemoptysis.
• ▸Asthma, spasmodic variety.

Weak voice.—Phthisis laryngea, when from irritability of pharynx

• ▸stomach will retain no food.
• ▸—Rapid breathings.
• ▸—Painful shortness of breath; at night.
• ▸—Short

breath in athletes, or in those taking alcohol or tobacco in excess.—Heemoptysis.—On coughing,

pain in occiput.—Cough from cold air or fast walking.—Expectoration of small lumps like boiled

starch, immediately after rising in morning.

Palpitation, with weak heart and dyspnoea.

Sudden attack of cramp in chest; became cold and unable to continue the

• ▸ascent.
• ▸—Intense oppression in chest.
• ▸—Rush of blood to chest with slight headache.
• ▸—Emphysema.

Palpitation with flushing —Violent and audible palpitation; angina pectoris; from

climbing or over-exertion.—Pulse greatly accelerated, intermittent —Pulse extremely slow and

intermittent, loses one beat in four.

Can find no rest anywhere, but sleepy. Nervousness and nightly restlessness during teething.

Sense of flushing, esp. up the back (With palpitation). Chilliness and headache in

afternoon.—At night heat and sleeplessness, with throbbing in arteries.—Flushes of heat on the

back and burning in abdomen.—Extreme weariness accompanies the fever.—Night sweats.

• ▸Angina pectoris.
• ▸Asthma.
• ▸Constipation, chronic.
• ▸Cough.
• ▸Deafness.
• ▸Debility.
• ▸Fever.

• ▸Heart disease.
• ▸Hemorrhoids.
• ▸Mountain-sickness, or Veta.
• ▸Rheumatism.
• ▸Scrofula.
• ▸Scurvy.
• ▸Voice,

weakness of.

Compare: Arsen. (effects of climbing); Stram. likes company and light; Coca likes

• ▸solitude and darkness; Paullinia, Scutel.
• ▸, Cypr.
• ▸, Valer.
• ▸, Can.
• ▸ind.
• ▸, tea, coffee, tobacco.
• ▸Gundlach

discovered the best antidote to be Gels.

Compare: Ars; Paulin; Cyp; Chamom.

Antidote: Gels.

Tincture to third attenuation.

The Divine Plant of the Incas-but the Spanish priests denounced it as "un delusion del demonio"

• ▸The mountaineer's remedy.
• ▸Useful in a variety of complaints incidental to mountain climbing, such as palpitation, dyspnoea, anxiety and insomnia.
• ▸Exhausted nervous system from physical and mental strain.
• ▸Caries of teeth.
• ▸Loss of voice.
• ▸--Give 5-6 drops, every half hour, two hours before expected demand on voice.
• ▸Nocturnal enuresis.
• ▸Emphysema (Quebracho).

Feeling of internal cold with numbness of hands and feet—Weakness of extremities.