There  is  an  increased  flow  of  saliva  from
chewing  Coca  which  is  not  wholly  dependent
upon  mastication,  but  the  function  is  increased
through  physiological  action. This  may  be  the
starting  point  of  its  beneficial  influence  in  the
conversion  of  starchy  foods  which  is  ultimately
pronouncedly  effective  in  the  building  up  of
muscular  tissue. Then  through  its  action  upon
the  gastric  secretions  Coca  furthers  the  diges-
tive process  instead  of  checking  it  by  any  an-
aesthetic action  on  the  stomach,  as  has  been  er-
roneously suggested  and  as  is  commonly  sup-
posed. In  this  relation  Dr. Weddle  says :     "I
can  affirm  very  positively  that  Coca,  as  it  is
taken  habitually,   does  not
TAPITI,  FOR  MAKING  FAKINAH. satiate  hunger. This  is  a

fact  of  which  I  have  con-

vinced  myself  by  daily  experience. The  Indians  who  accom-
panied me  on  my  journey  chewed  Coca  during  the  whole  day,
but  at  evening  they  filled  their  stomachs  like  fasting  men,  and
I  am  certain  I  have  seen  one  devour  as  much  food  at  a  single

c^

meal  as  I  should  have  consumed  during  two  days."


THE    HUNGER    SENSE. 479

A  host  of  modern  observers  have  recognized  the  true  food
value  of  Coca  in  nutrition,  particularly  serviceable  in  the
emergency  of  protracted  fevers  or  in  debility  until  other  food
may  take  its  place,  and  life  has  been  prolonged  for  long
periods  under  the  exclusive  use  of  Coca  during  the  enforced
abstinence  from  other  food.*  Rusby  found  that  Coca  allays
the  hunger  sense,  but  does  not  suspend  ability,  being  really  a
tonic  to  digestion,  while  Reichert,  from  laboratory  experi-
ments, concluded  that  Coca  might  not  only  replace  food,  but
"in  cases  of  restricted  diet,  or  even  in  the  entire  absence  of
food,  will  enable  the  individual  to  perform  as  much  or  even
more  work  than  under  ordinary  circumstances."12

There  has  been  an  attempt  to  explain  this  influence  of
Coca  upon  the  sense  of  hunger  through  an  anesthetic  action
on  the  mucous  membrane  of  the  stomach,  which  seems  parallel
to  the  idea  that  tobacco  abolishes  the  sense  of  hunger  through
disgust  by  prostrating  nervous  action. But  as  Anstie  says :
"It  is  wholly  improbable  that  agents  having  a  depressing  in-
fluence on  the  nervous  system,  such  as  antimony  and  ipecac,
would  relieve  the  feeling  of  weakness  occasioned  through
hunger  and  fatigue."13  It  should  be  recalled  that  the  sense
of  hunger  is  not  local,  but  general. 