![Historically, the debilitating, recurring fevers of malaria were remedied with cinchona (quinine vs. shivering) and coca (cocaine vs. fatigue)—botanically, a bark and a leaf, respectively. However, quinine has direct antimalarial properties, which coca lacks. This reality did not prevent New York City’s Quichua [sic] Coca Company from falsely advertising the malaria-fighting powers of pharmaceuticals and beverages mixed with the company’s Coca Bitters. The printer’s proof (above) of the logo for those bitters trademarked a presumably cocaine-driven Quechuan Amerindian hiking through Peruvian jungle carting a seated man whose chair was lashed to the tireless porter’s forehead and waist. So, 5 yr before Karl Koller’s research on the numbing properties of topical cocaine, Coca Bitters were peddled in 1879 as socially acceptable stimulants for numbing the effects of fatigue. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)](https://asa2.silverchair-cdn.com/asa2/content_public/journal/anesthesiology/129/2/10.1097_aln.0000000000002358/2/m_11ff01.jpeg?Expires=1730209797&Signature=B8hBjEB44wNQ--Az59NfTZPmDwSv4SHBiweABO7ClFlgDUjfDsJ2nPKT3l3rDDl4F-z-emznSUF9B48IgM9bzhdORefzviTufMv7HvbWwNp~qIAQus80WvZNOH038yt-Ay0eHChlZlB3zUdAkh5C2lnM2HF22QAJ9VIny5hKbBet3NZBS2EENW9-Palox-gluopgxGzpBRGMKG-B~wG0s0PCQfehK-vIk3vrTsUV1BWLNUCoxnxrBv0YA8SfI0eehWPtEav7ox2b2hg4eiRIhah3FSnQrr2GT2r72uld2hNqy~wiNJ1bUpgkVoq5S5WBVLe5XMXE6Ljk6I2egKfvRw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIE5G5CRDK6RD3PGA)
Historically, the debilitating, recurring fevers of malaria were remedied with cinchona (quinine vs. shivering) and coca (cocaine vs. fatigue)—botanically, a bark and a leaf, respectively. However, quinine has direct antimalarial properties, which coca lacks. This reality did not prevent New York City’s Quichua [sic] Coca Company from falsely advertising the malaria-fighting powers of pharmaceuticals and beverages mixed with the company’s Coca Bitters. The printer’s proof (above) of the logo for those bitters trademarked a presumably cocaine-driven Quechuan Amerindian hiking through Peruvian jungle carting a seated man whose chair was lashed to the tireless porter’s forehead and waist. So, 5 yr before Karl Koller’s research on the numbing properties of topical cocaine, Coca Bitters were peddled in 1879 as socially acceptable stimulants for numbing the effects of fatigue. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Historically, the debilitating, recurring fevers of malaria were remedied with cinchona (quinine vs. shivering) and coca (cocaine vs. fatigue)—botanically, a bark and a leaf, respectively. However, quinine has direct antimalarial properties, which coca lacks. This reality did not prevent New York City’s Quichua [sic] Coca Company from falsely advertising the malaria-fighting powers of pharmaceuticals and beverages mixed with the company’s Coca Bitters. The printer’s proof (above) of the logo for those bitters trademarked a presumably cocaine-driven Quechuan Amerindian hiking through Peruvian jungle carting a seated man whose chair was lashed to the tireless porter’s forehead and waist. So, 5 yr before Karl Koller’s research on the numbing properties of topical cocaine, Coca Bitters were peddled in 1879 as socially acceptable stimulants for numbing the effects of fatigue. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
George S. Bause, M.D., M.P.H., Honorary Curator and Laureate of the History of Anesthesia, Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, Schaumburg, Illinois, and Clinical Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. UJYC@aol.com.
