Daily camera. [volume] (Boulder, Colo.) 1891-1928, 1900-04-25
THE CALISAYA TOPPER
A Habit That Is Getting a Strong
Hold in Chicago
Use aAA Eject OF the Powerful Drug
When Taken N = StimulaAt-
Made from Peruvian or
CinchOna Bark.

The use of the drug in New York city
as means of stimulating the stomach
OF dissipated men and women has al
ready attracted attention from physi-
clans. Authorities of insane asylums
have also begun to note the presence
of the "calisaya VICTIM" although it
is probable he has been more or less
in existence for a great many years
past. 1t is not SO very long ago, says
a writer in the Chicago Times-Herald,
that it was uncommon in the west to
have drinking man order calisaya in
connection with his liquor. In fact, he
was ashamed to do so if he understood
it's use, and generally took it in the
privacy of his rooms or through the
prescription of a lenient physician.
Now it is quite a fad to mix the liquor
and calisaya in the delusion that the
body is being permanently assisted and
the nerves protected from the evil eff
feet of too much stimulant. | saw the
other day the brain of man who had
died from combination of too much
whisky and calisaya. A local physician
cases of men under his treatment for
the purpose of being freed from the
use of the powerful drug.
Calisaya. or yellow cinchona bark,
reaches in its permanent effect on the
system the heart and the brain at about
the same time-not quite so quickly
as small doses of arsenic would or med
ical doses of strychnia, but quick
enough to produce at an early period
some form of idiocy in the mind of the
user. The thought centers of the
brain are quite rapidly eaten out. A
tissue is destroyed which under or
binary circumstances ought to last I'M
til man has passed his siXtieth year
The limbs begin to tremble as the use
of the drug increases. There may be
more or less uncertainty in speech.
Thought, which at first has been quick
ened by the influence of the calisaya,
grows dull, and the liquor which is
taken with it does not serve to quicken
it. l am told that cloud seems to
pass over the brain, and things are seen
by the mental eye as through mist.
OF course the drinker who needs his
brace" every "a hours ascribes the
first symptoms of disintegration to the
liquor and bad stomach and takes
more calisaya. But this simply serves
to hasten his end with form of idiocy
said to be not quite SO painful as that
from liquor alone. Men who eat heav-
lily, drink much and take but little ex-
ercise are noted as the ones who now
publicly absorb calisaya and point to
it as a delightful innovation intro
duced by their better educated broth
ers of the east In time their doses of
calisaya fail to produce the desired
beneficial results. If medical assistance
is then desired the victim has in most
instances gone so far toward making
little something lower than beast of
himself that it Is only necessary to
write out his death certificate and
ascribe the cause to some other reason
than yellow cinchona bark.
Cinchona, OR chinchona, is so called
after the countess of Chinchon. Chin,
chon is community in Spain neal
Madrid. The countess was the vice
queen of Peru, who, in 1883, was cured
of fever by the use of cinchona bark
and who assisted il making the REM
edy known, without regard to all the
consequences. The bark from which
the drug is made comes from a genus of
evergreen trees, natives of the Andres
from Colombia to Bolivia growing
chiefly OF the eastern slopes at an aver
age altitude of from 5000 to 5000 feet.
Here are found the sources of Peruvian
or cinchona bark and quinine. There
are about 40 species, but the cinchona
bark of commerce is produced by about
dozen. The barlls commonly found
at any pharmacy are chiefly of three
kinds-the ordinary Peruvian bark,
calisaya AND red cinchona Ordinary
cinchona bark is valuable as a remedy
in fevers and ASIA general tonic, but
the allaloids obtainable from the bark
have in practice largely taken the place
of the bark itself. If the calisaya topper
could contine himself to medicinal
doses he probably would never suffer
any ill effects, but he. absorbs the drug
in practically the same quantities as he
does his whisky or brandy.
l asked Dr. Frank n. Doud, a student
of calisayic victims, what particular i'll
effect local users of the drug would feel
aside from those | nave mentioned. He
said that they would be particularly
liable to attacks of la grippe, and that
this poison in their system would drive
the la grippe to the head, with tenn
porary or permanent insanity follow
ing. A person addicted to the use os
calisaya is much more apt to take la
grippe in its severe or fatal form. DR..
Doud noted also that hard drinkers
who suddenly ceased the use ofiquor
eventually take calisaya as a substi-
tute and find that they-have jumped
from the frying pan into the fire. He
deplores the use of calisaya in social
drinking, because Of it's damning eff
feet upon the nerve centers. AS the
habit is rapidly growing in Chicago
drinking circles we shall soon have for
treatment the calisayic heart, the cali