DRUGGED FOODS

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 327, 13 August 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

DRUGGED FOODS

There is a general consensus of opinion that the addition of active drugs belonging to the class of nervine stimulants to beverages and articles of dietary in ordinary domestic use is not for the benefit of the community, and is likely in time to produce a deterioration of the public health. It is not long since that we had occasion to condemn in somewhat emphatic terms the indiscriminate use of wines containing cocaine or extract of coca ; and we have reason to believe that our action in this matter was attended with beneficial results. Cocaine is the most typical example of that particular class of remedies to which we refcv. The insidious production of cocaiuism by the unsuspected employment of this alkaloid is as serious as the induction of chronic alcoholism, and is less easily controlled. At the present moment we are beset by another danger, arising from the addition of kola to certain articles of food. The kola or Java nut is the product of Sterculia acuminata, a tree indigenous to Western Africa, and cultivated in various tropical countries. It is largely employed as a stimulant to the nervous system, and —like coca—is credited with marvellous sustaining powers, so that persons under its influence are temporarily enabled to endure great and protracted exertion and deprivation of food without suffering from fatigue or hunger. It is reasonable to. suppose that a drug reputed to exert so decided an action on the animal economy is not without its disadvantages, and that during the stage of reaction'there is considerable depression of the vital powers. It is with drugs of this class that a habit of coustant indulgenc eis most readily established, and the dangers of the prolonged useof cocaine and morphine—both of which are nervous stimulants —have long been recognised. Kola lias been found on analysis to contain 2*13 per cent, of caffeine —a considerably larger quantity than is met with in the finest Mocha coffee. Caffeine is an alkaloid possessing a very decided physiological action. In frogs it induces violent tetanic convulsions, general paralysis, and death by asphyxia, whilst in man the symptoms are a sensation of heaviness in the head, flashes of light before the eyes, sinking in the cars, loss of sleep, restlessness, and in large doses delirium. Caffeine is undoubtedly a useful drug when employed in suitable cases and in appropriate doses ; but if taken habitually in large quantities, it is capable of inducing an undesirable condition of over-stimulation of the nerve centres, —British Medical Journal.