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Crowley
, January 07, 2011
An absolute gem in the historical literature on the coca plant. It's engagingly written and does an excellent job in tracing the history of the plant, touching briefly on pre-Incan use, discussing its exalted status within the Incan empire through to the period of the Spanish conquest when it was first recorded in western history and the concomitant shift in its social role from that point onward, all the way through to the details of its botanical and chemical elucidation and introduction into the medical pharmacopeia of the mid- to late-19th century.
While the order of the chapters seem unorthodox and there is inevitably some information included which more sensitive modern investigation has shown to be naive or unfounded, it nevertheless provides a fascinating insight into what constituted the cutting edge of medical and scientific understanding at that point in history, all the more so because Dr. Mortimer uses several chapters to give the reader background context by essentially delivering lectures upon medical topics related to the empirically observed physiological properties of coca and cocaine.
The charming hand-drawn illustrations, head-pieces, tail-pieces, and thematically-illustrated initials that give the book such a delightful homey feeling are just icing on the cake.
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