[Consumption of coca in history]

The first consumers of coca were the Aymara Indians of the Andes mountains. At the beginning, the consumption of coca-leaves was reserved to princes and priests during religious ceremonies. This habit was later extended to the common people. The Spanish invaders judged that this practice was the expression of a "pagan cult" and therefore banned the cultivation of the coca-plant. In the XIXth century, coca and cocaine were used once more in Europe. Freud made self-experiments with cocaine, but he was promptly discouraged by reading about the cases of cocaine mania reported in the American scientific literature. In 1870 Angelo Mariani brought on the market a kind of wine, based on coca extract, which enjoyed a great success in Europe. Hereafter Pemberton produced, in the USA, a competitive drink under the name "Vin français cola", wherein he replaced the wine by a cola extract and where from he finally vanished cocaine. The medical use of cocaine for the treatment of hayfever and asthma (Dr. Tücker's elixir) had in between officially been agreed by the famous scientific societies in America. This treatment was finally abandoned.