The complete herbalist, or, the people their own physicians by the use of nature's remedies showing the great curative properties of all herbs, gums, balsams, barks, flowers and roots ; how they should be prepared, when and under what influences selected, at what times gathered, and for what diseases administered. Also, separate treatises on fod and drinks ; clothing ; exercise ; the regulation of the passions, life, health, and disease; longevity; medication; air and sunshine ; bathing ; sleep, etc. Also, symptoms of prevalent diseases ; special treatment in special cases; and a new and plain system of hygienic principles / by O. Phelps Brown.

  • Brown, O. Phelps (Oliver Phelps), active 1871.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete herbalist, or, the people their own physicians by the use of nature's remedies showing the great curative properties of all herbs, gums, balsams, barks, flowers and roots ; how they should be prepared, when and under what influences selected, at what times gathered, and for what diseases administered. Also, separate treatises on fod and drinks ; clothing ; exercise ; the regulation of the passions, life, health, and disease; longevity; medication; air and sunshine ; bathing ; sleep, etc. Also, symptoms of prevalent diseases ; special treatment in special cases; and a new and plain system of hygienic principles / by O. Phelps Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    65/438 (page 59)
    COCA. Ebythroxolon Coca. Description.—I first became acquainted with this most remarkable plant, many years ago, while travelling in Bolivia, South America, in the beautiful valleys of the Cordilleras. The Coca is a bush which rarely attains six feet ia height, and does not often exceed three. Its foliage is of a bright green, its flowers white, and its fruit small and red. When the plants are just about eighteen inches high they are transplanted from the seed beds into fields called cocaJks. The ripe leaves are gath- ered with the fingers. They are dried by spreading them in the sun, sometimes on woolen cloths. The operation requires great care, for the plant must be protected from all dampness, which chaiiges its color, and thus diiiiiuishes its value. It is then packed in bags, weighing from ufty to one hundred and fifty pounds, which are often transported to great distances. In the Yice-royalty cf Lima, in the latter part of the last century, Castelnau represents the coiiSumption of the leaf, at three millions and a half of pounds, and worth one million and a quarter of Spanish dollars, while at the same time the total consumption in Peru was two millions and a half of dollars. The importance of the Coca trade, however, is diminishing as the Red Man disappears. The Indians mix the Coca with a small quantity of lime, and constantly carry a small bag of it in all their excursions. They take it from three to six times a day. Dr. Gsciiudi [Travels in Peru, page 453,] mentions an Indian of sixty-two years of age, who was employed by him, and though at very hard work for five days took no other nour- ishment, and rested but two hours of the night. Immediately, or soon after this, he accomplished a journey of one hundred miles in two days, and said that he was ready to do the same tiling again if they would give him a new supply of Coca. Castelnau says he himself knew of instances as extraordinary In tlie time of the Incas the Coca was regarded as sacred. Gove^-nment and Virtues—It is a plant of Jupiter. Its pliysiological actions are an follows : 1.—it stimulates the stomach and promotes digestion.