Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-09-11

DR.. Wiley's opinion of Coca Cola.
The Department OF. Agriculture has
recently been investigating Coca Cola
and a number of prominent physic.
ians and chemists have declared that
they believe 1t harmful.
Following is a letter from DR.. With
to a prominent w. CIT. U. woman.
THE advertisements of Coca Cola
very generally represented it as re.
lieving fatigue. This it does by the
stimulus OF the chaffein ii contains.
To strike down the signal without re-
lieving the exhaustion Is a direct
threat to health. 1t would be par
alleled by extinguishing the red light
and not closing the switch.
Zone Of the chemists who had had
certified that Coca Cola syrup con-
tanned no alcohol, on the witness
stand at Chattanooga admitted that
he had made a mis.statement. The
Coca Cola syrup does contain alcohol
but only a small quantity.
THE question Of whether Coca
Cola contained an injurious and hab-
Informing drug Was not decided by
the court at Chattanooga. The court
decided that Coca lola was q distinc-
tive name, and that the chaffein it
contained was not an added sub
stance, and hence 1t did not come
within the scope OF the law. So far
as ! know, there have been no sland-
erous statements regarding Coca
Cola. Coca Cola is a beverage which
is made possible by a drug, chaffein,
which is often injurious and some
times produces most deleterious ef-
fects. The people who drink Coca
Cola love to repeat, and therefore it
is a habit-forming drug. Parents
who forbid their children to drink
tea and coffee at home are ignorant
of the fact that these same children
are drinking caff in in Coca Cola at
the soda fountain."-Good House
keeping. ,
jain Witherspoon and Coca Cola.
John Witherspoon, NJ. D., professor
of medicine at Vanderbilt university
and president.elect of the American
Medical Association, bears witness
against Coca Cola as follows:
1T is a heart stimulant. | think
that n glass of Coca Cola, contain.
ing the amount of caffein it is shown
by Mr.. Fuller's analysis to contain,
would have very little effect more
than as a mild stimulant, but it is
the continued use that has the seri.
Gus effect. 1t would affect the nerv.
Gus system. making the user very
nervous by its action upon the brain
and spinal cord, ove stimulating the
%refexes; stimulating directly the
centers. My experience with Coca
Cola shows that continued users of it
are seriously impaired in digestion.
Young people soon form the habit OF
taking Coca Cola and take sometimes
s, 10, Is or 20 drinks a day. Some
become extremely nervous, weak,
and the heart becomes rapid and ir-
regular. They really look like NOR.
! phine habitues,I s. far as their efforts
10 control it are concerned.
l have treated probably thirty or
forty patients afflicted with the Coca
Cola habit during the last four or five
years. ! have had three cases in the
hospital that l have treated to break
off the habit. As they gave up the
habit their health improved. l have
thought that the habitual use of Coca
Cola impaired their digestion. l re-
gard Coca Cola as habit-forming; one
glass creates a demand for another
because it stimulates the user and
makes him feel better; then, when
its effect wears off, the reaction is
one of depression, and he gets very
nervous and seemingly cannot do
without it very w'll."-Good House
keeDing.