The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1909-08-12
Obe Jefferson,on

drink it by the bottle and pitcher.
Has any one ever been injured by
Coca Cola? Many travellers in the
South, and people living in the South
ern States where this drink is much
more commonly used than in the
North, have assured me that young
people who become addicted to this
drink develop nervous disorders and
some are wrecked by it. One w. G.
L. U. woman of high standing wrote
me, The sanitariums are full of it's
victims and they are just like drunk
ards. Newspaper clippings have
come to me with notices of boys 60
ing insane, and the physicians in at
tendance said the trouble was caused
by cigarettes and Coca Cola. Some
w. G. T. U. women in New York
State, who have been making a study
of this drink say they see much ner-
vous trouble among those who have
become addicted to it. A prominent
physician Of Washington, D. c.,
writes me that he thinks Coca Cola
even worse in it's effects than beer,
which we all know to be injurious.
A health officer says, MANY factory
girls are spending most of their
wages on coca cola.
Mr.. Samuel Hopkins Adams, who
wrote the "Great American Fraud"
series of articles for Golfers Week
ly, was sent to Georgia by Golfers
to study Coca Cola. He wrote to me
OF it as follows: q reported to Col
lier's that I am convinced that Coca
Cola does not contain cocaine But
l do most emphatically believe that
it produces habit, not SO pronounced
indeed, as alcohol or morphine ad-
diction, but, nevertheless, banefu1
and difficult to break. hear from all
parts Of the South both by letter and
by personal interview of cases where
the addict must have his fifteen or
twenty glasses of dope (the South
ern term for Coca COla) per day. I
hope most sincerely that your organi-
cation will not either explicitly or by
implication give Coca Cola a clean
bill Of health. -
The Bureau of chemistry at Wash
ington has examined Coca Cola, and
Dr.. Wiley says also: when caffeine
is separated from tea and coffee and
used as a separate drug it exerts a
much more specific action upon the
Sy SI0u Iudu Wien Ill Natural COm Dl-
nation. It's general effect is to induce
that unhappy state described as ner-
vousness, with deranged digestion
and impaired health"
DR.. H. H. Rusby, dean of the Col
lege of Pharmacy of Columbia Uni
versity, New York city, high au-
thority, says: caffeine is a genuine
poison, both acute and chronic. Taken
in the form of beverage it tends to
the formation of drug habit, quite
as characteristic, though not so eff
fective, as ordinary narcotics. Per-
manent disorders of the cardiac
(heart) function, and Of the cerebral
(brain) circulation result from it's
continued use"
The Druggists Circular for May,
1908, contained a query from a drug
gist as to a good formula for a kola
nut soda syrup. The answer was in
part as follows: "There are two kinds
of druggists. One kind puts any
and every kind of stuff into stock,
and passes it out to his customers,
young and old, ignorant or learned,
foolish or wise, his only desire being
to get a profit. The other kind of
druggist refuses to stock some things
at all. Kola drinks owe their vogue
to the caffeine which they contain.
Caffeine is poison which is cumula-
tive in it's effects, and an excess of
which has NOT infronl1ont1v naucod