On Sir Robert Christison's side of the
question there are many competent observers whose testimony is spread
over many years; while on Mr. Dowdeswell's side there are fewer
observers. But there has been no observer on either side whose researches
have been anything like so thorough, so extended, or so accurate as those
of Mr. Dowdeswell. Indeed, no other account has been met with wherein the
modern methods of precision have been applied to the question at all; the
other testimony being all rather loose and indefinite, often at second or
third hands, or from the narratives of more or less enthusiastic
travelers. But if Mr. Dowdeswell's results be accepted as being
conclusive, the annual consumption of 40,000,000 pounds of coca at a cost
of 10,000,000 dollars promotes this substance to take rank among the
large economic blunders of the age.[9]
[Footnote 9: An excellent summing up of the character and history of
coca, from which some of the writer's information has been obtained, will
be found in "Medicinal Plants," by Bentley and Trimen, vol. i., article
40.]
The testimony in regard to the effects of tea, coffee, Paraguay tea,
Guarana and Kola nuts, is all of a similar character to that upon coca.
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