Coca and its Therapeutic Application, Third EditionMariani, Angelo
History
Coca and its Therapeutic Application, Third Edition
Mariani, Angelo
Coca -- Therapeutic use; Cocaine
In repeating these experiments in the laboratory, Dr. Laffont has
succeeded little by little in enlarging his field of experiments, and
finally has given to the Académie de Médecine (session of the 4th of
January, 1888), a complete and definitive account of the action of the
active principles of Coca on the different functions of the economy.
This work of original researches and criticism of previous works will
serve to explain the methodical and rational use of our preparations
in the list of the different diseases where our former previsions had
already led us to advise them.
In an earlier work (Comptes-rendus, _Société de Biologie_, Dec. 3,
1887), Dr. Laffont, studying the action of Cocaine on the great
sympathetic nervous system, found that under the action of the active
principle of Coca the functions of all the constrictor fibres of the
great sympathetic nerve were increased.
The stomach contracts.
The intestines undergo an augmentation in peristalsis and borborygmi
are heard.
The bladder invariably contracts, as M. Laborde has also seen.
The orbital capsule of the eye (smooth muscle) propels the eye-ball
forward.
The pupil is dilated.
In a word, all the smooth-fibred muscles or muscles of organic life,
subordinate to the great sympathetic nervous system constrictor,
undergo an augmentation of functional activity.
In a second essay (Comptes-rendus, _Société de Biologie_, Dec. 17,
1887), the same experimenter studied more particularly the mechanism of
the local or general analgesic action of Cocaine, and, like M. Arloing,
as opposed to M. Laborde, he found that the cerebral perceptibility was
not deadened, by a physiological dose, but on the contrary, increased.
The action of Cocaine on the nervous system is not exerted by the
intervention of vascular constriction; it is a generalized exciting
action, and a state of peripheric non-receptivity of external
impressions[13] in the nervous extremities of the sensory nerves and
the nerves of general sensation.
Cocaine, according to M. Laffont, is not the antagonist of curare, as
M. Laborde describes it, but quite the contrary, a particular curare,
acting like it on the periphery, and not affecting the nervous centers,
the functional action of which is exaggerated thereby.
M. le docteur Beugniès-Corbeau describes fully in the _Revue
hebdomadaire de Thérapeutique générale et thermale_, the internal
effects of Coca, until now so obscure, and in regard to which no
concrete doctrine had been formulated until M. le docteur Laffont
presented to the Académie de Médecine his researches. He shows that
Coca, from its active principles, should have these entirely distinct
actions:
1º Action on the protoplasm of the nervous extremities of the
sensory nerves and on the nerves of general sensibility, producing
non-transmissibility to the nerves of painful and even sensorized
impressions, in a large dose;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account