5232 Burke's Guiness Stout 6.66 7.17

The alcohol in the above table represents the cubic centimeters
of alcohol in a 100 cubic centimeters of the liquid. The solids
are the number of grams of solid extract in each 100 centimeters
of the liquid.

S. P. SHARPLES.

The _British Medical Journal_, and the _British Medical Temperance
Review_ have been calling attention to the danger in coca wines.
Intemperance among invalids is said to be greatly on the increase from
the use of these wines. In every case the basis of these preparations is
strongly alcoholic wine, ranging from 18 to 20 per cent. The coca added
is either the leaves, or liquid extract of coca, or hydrochlorate of
cocaine.

Dr. Frederic Coley says in the _British Medical Journal_:--

"Coca, and its chief alkaloid, cocaine, are drugs which possess
some power of removing the sense of fatigue, just as analgesics
remove the consciousness of pain. But they no more remove the
physical condition of muscles, and nerve centres, of which the
sense of pain gives us warning, than a dose of morphine, which
removes the pain of toothache, removes the offending tooth, or
even arrests the caries in it. The truth of this will be obvious
to any one who remembers enough of physiology to know what
fatigue really means. A muscle which is tired out is different
chemically from the same muscle in its more normal condition,
when it is ready to respond vigorously to ordinary stimuli. It
has lost something, and is, besides, overcharged (poisoned, in
fact) with the products of its own activity, and it can only be
restored by a fresh supply of the material which it requires,
and the carrying away of the poisonous waste products. Fatigue
of nerve centres is no doubt strictly analogous to fatigue of
muscles.

"It is practically impossible for us, by voluntary exertion, to
reach the degree of absolute fatigue, which the physiologist
produces by electric stimulation of a nerve-muscle preparation.
The sense of fatigue becomes so intense that voluntary effort
cannot overcome it. So no man can produce asphyxia by simply
holding his breath, because the _besoin de respirer_ becomes
irresistible; but it is quite possible for a narcotic to so dull
the sensory part of the respiratory reflex mechanism as to
permit asphyxia to take p