Chapter 43

Closely allied is _N. haje_, the common hooded cobra of all Africa, the _Spy-slange_, i.e. spitting snake of the Boers.

The cobra is justly regarded as one of the most deadly of the Indian Thanatophidia. Many thousand deaths are caused annually by this unfortunately common species, but it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics. The bite of a vigorous cobra will often prove fatal in a few minutes, and as there is no practicable antidote to the poison, it is only in rare instances that such mechanical expedients as cauterizing, constriction or amputation can be applied with sufficient promptitude to prevent the virus from entering the circulation. Owing to a small reward offered by the Indian government for the head of each poisonous snake, great numbers of cobras have been destroyed; but only low-caste Hindus will engage in such work, the cobra being regarded by the natives generally with superstitious reverence, as a divinity powerful to injure, and therefore to be propitiated; and thus oftentimes when found in their dwellings this snake is allowed to remain, and is fed and protected. "Should fear," says Sir J. Fayrer, "and perhaps the death of some inmate bitten by accident, prove stronger than superstition, it may be caught, tenderly handled, and deported to some field, where it is released and allowed to depart in peace, not killed" (_Thanatophidia of India_). Great numbers, especially of young cobras, are killed by the adjutant birds and by the mungoos--a small mammal which attacks it with impunity, apparently not from want of susceptibility to the poison, but by its dexterity in eluding the bite of the cobra. Mere scratching or tearing does not appear to be sufficient to bring the poison from the glands; it is only when the fangs are firmly implanted by the jaws being pressed together that the virus enters the wound, and in those circumstances it has been shown by actual experiment that the mungoos, like all other warm-blooded animals, succumbs to the poison. In the case of reptiles, the cobra poison takes effect much more slowly, while it has been proved to have no effect whatever on other venomous serpents.

In the Egyptian hieroglyphics the cobra occurs constantly with the body erect and hood expanded; its name was _ouro_, which signifies "king," and the animal appears in Greek literature as _ouraios_ and _basiliscus_. With the Egyptian snake-charmers of the present day the cobra is as great a favourite as with their Hindu colleagues. They pretend to change the snake into a rod, and it appears that the supple snake is made stiff and rigid by a strong pressure upon its neck, and that the animal does not seem to suffer from this operation, but soon recovers from the cataleptic fit into which it has been temporarily thrown.

The cobra is the snake usually exhibited by the Indian jugglers, who show great dexterity in handling it, even when not deprived of its fangs. Usually, however, the front fang at least is extracted, the creature being thus rendered harmless until the succeeding tooth takes its place, and in many cases all the fangs, with the germs behind, are removed--the cobra being thus rendered innocuous for life. The snake charmer usually plays a few simple notes on the flute, and the cobra, apparently delighted, rears half its length in the air and sways its head and body about, keeping time to the music.

The cobra, like almost all poisonous snakes, is by no means aggressive, and when it gets timely warning of the approach of man endeavours to get out of his way. It is only when trampled upon inadvertently, or otherwise irritated, that it attempts to use its fangs. It is a good swimmer, often crossing broad rivers, and probably even narrow arms of the sea, for it has been met with at sea at least a quarter of a mile from land.

COBURG, a town of Germany, the twin capital with Gotha of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, on the left bank of the Itz, an affluent of the Regen, on the southern slope of the Frankenwald, the railway from Eisenach to Lichtenfels, and 40 m. S.S.E. of Gotha. Pop. (1905) 22,489. The town is for the most part old, and contains a number of interesting buildings. The ducal palace, known as the Ehrenburg, is a magnificent building, originally erected on the site of a convent of bare-footed friars by Duke John Ernest in 1549, renovated in 1698, and restored in 1816 by Duke Ernest I. It contains a vast and richly decorated hall, the court church and a fine picture gallery. In the gardens are the mausoleum of Duke Francis (d. 1806) and his wife, a bronze equestrian statue of Duke Ernest II. and a fountain in commemoration of Duke Alfred (duke of Edinburgh). In the market square are the medieval Rathaus, the government buildings, and a statue of Prince Albert (consort of Queen Victoria), by William Theed the younger (1804-1891). In the Schloss-platz are the Edinburgh Palace (Palais Edinburg), built in 1881, the theatre and an equestrian statue of Duke Ernest I. Among the churches the most remarkable is the Moritzkirche, with a lofty tower. The educational establishments include a gymnasium, founded in 1604 by Duke John Casimir (d. 1633) and thus known as the Casimirianum, a commercial, an agricultural and other schools. The Zeughaus (armoury) contains the ducal library of 100,000 volumes, and among other public buildings may be mentioned the Augustenstift, formerly the seat of the ministerial offices, and the Marstall (royal mews). On a commanding eminence above the town is the ancient castle of Coburg, dating from the 11th century (see below). In 1781 it was turned into a penitentiary and lunatic asylum, but in 1835-1838 was completely restored, and now contains a natural history museum. The most interesting room in this building is that which was occupied by Luther in 1530, where the surroundings may have inspired, though (as is now proved) he did not compose, the famous hymn, _Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott_; the bed on which he slept, and the pulpit from which he preached in the old chapel are shown. Coburg is a place of considerable industry, the chief branches of the latter being brewing, manufactures of machinery, colours and porcelain, iron-founding and saw-milling; and there is an important trade in the cattle reared in the neighbourhood. Among various places of interest in the vicinity are the ducal residences of Callenberg and Rosenau, in the latter of which Albert, Prince Consort, was born in 1819; the castle of Lauterburg; and the village of Neuses, with the house of the poet J. M. F. Rückert, who died here in 1866, and on the other side of the river the tomb of the poet Moritz August von Thümmel (1738-1817).

The town of Coburg, first mentioned in a record of 1207, owed its existence and its name to the castle, and in the 15th and 16th centuries was of considerable importance as a halting-place on the great trade route from Nuremberg _via_ Bamberg to the North. In 1245 the castle became the seat of the elder branch of the counts of Henneberg (Coburg-Schmalkalden). The countships of Coburg and Schmalkalden passed by the marriage of Jutta, daughter of Hermann I. (d. 1290), to Otto V. of Brandenburg, whose grandson John, however, sold them to Henry VIII. of Henneberg, his brother-in-law. Henry's daughter Catherine (d. 1397) married Frederick III. of Meissen, and so brought the castle, town and countship into the possession of the Saxon house of Wettin. In 1549 Duke John Ernest of Saxony made Coburg his residence and turned the old castle into a fortress strong enough to stand a three years' siege (1632-1635) during the Thirty Years' War. In 1641 Coburg fell to the dukes of Saxe-Altenburg. In 1835 it became the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg. For the princes of the house of Coburg see WETTIN And SAXE-COBURG.

COCA, or CUCA (_Erythroxylon coca_), a plant of the natural order Erythroxylaceae, the leaves of which are used as a stimulant in the western countries of South America.[1] It resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 6 or 8 ft. The branches are straight, and the leaves, which have a lively green tint, are thin, opaque, oval, more or less tapering at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines one on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf. Good samples of the dried leaves are uncurled, are of a deep green on the upper, and a grey-green on the lower surface, and have a strong tea-like odour; when chewed they produce a sense of warmth in the mouth, and have a pleasant, pungent taste. Bad specimens have a camphoraceous smell and a brownish colour, and lack the pungent taste. The flowers are small, and disposed in little clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. The seeds are sown in December and January in small plots (_almacigas_) sheltered from the sun, and the young plants when from 1½ to 2 ft. in height are placed in holes (_aspi_), or, if the ground is level, in furrows (_uachos_) in carefully-weeded soil. The plants thrive best in hot, damp situations, such as the clearings of forests; but the leaves most preferred are obtained in drier localities, on the sides of hills. The leaves are gathered from plants varying in age from one and a half to upwards of forty years. They are considered ready for plucking when they break on being bent. The first and most abundant harvest is in March, after the rains; the second is at the end of June, the third in October or November. The green leaves (_matu_) are spread in thin layers on coarse woollen cloths and dried in the sun; they are then packed in sacks, which, in order to preserve the quality of the leaves, must be kept from damp.

In the Kew Bulletin for January 1889 is an account of the history and botany of the plant, which has been so long under cultivation in South America that its original home is doubtful. As the result of this cultivation numerous forms have arisen. The writer distinguishes from the typical Peruvian form with pointed leaves a variety _novo-granatense_, from New Granada, which has smaller leaves with a rounded apex. The plant is now cultivated in the West Indies, India, Ceylon, Java and elsewhere. It has been estimated that coca is used by about 8,000,000 of the human race, being consumed in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Rio Negro. In Peru the Indians carry a leathern pouch (the _chuspa_ or _huallqui_) for the leaves, and a supply of pulverized unslaked lime, or a preparation of the ashes of the quinoa plant (_Chenopodium Quinoa_), called _llipta_ or _llucta_. Three or four times a day labour is suspended for _chacchar_ or _acullicar_, as the mastication of coca is termed. The leaves, deprived of their stalks, are chewed and formed into a ball (_acullico_) in the mouth; a small quantity of the lime or llipta is then applied to the acullico to give it a proper relish. Two or three ounces of coca are thus daily consumed by each Indian.

Coca was used by the Peruvian Indians in the most ancient times. It was employed as an offering to the sun, or to produce smoke at the great sacrifices; and the priests, it was believed, must chew it during the performance of religious ceremonies, otherwise the gods would not be propitiated. Coca is still held in superstitious veneration among the Peruvians, and is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the veins of ore, if masticated and thrown upon them.

The composition of different specimens of coca leaves is very inconstant. Besides the important alkaloid _cocaine_ (q.v.), occurring to the extent of about O.2% in fresh specimens, there are several other alkaloids. The preparations of coca leaves are incompatible with certain drugs which might often be prescribed in combination with them, such as salts of mercury, menthol and mineral acids, which latter decompose cocaine into benzoic acid and ecgonine.

Coca leaves and preparations of them have no external action. Internally their action is similar to that of opium, though somewhat less narcotic, and causing a dilatation of the pupil of the eye instead of a contraction. When masticated, the leaves first cause a tingling in the tongue and mucous membrane of the mouth, owing to a stimulation of the nerves of common sensation, and then abolish taste owing to a paralysis of the terminals of the gustatory nerves. They have a definite anaesthetic action upon the mucous membrane of the stomach, from which there come in large part those organic sensations which we interpret as hunger. Hence it is possible, under the influence of coca, to go without food or consciousness of needing it, for as long a period as three days. The drug is not a food, however, as its composition and history in the body clearly show, and the individual who comfortably fasts under its influence nevertheless shows all the physical signs of starvation, such as loss of weight. In small doses coca stimulates the intestinal peristalsis and thus is an aperient, but in large doses it paralyses the muscular coat of the bowel, causing constipation, such as is constantly seen in coco-maniacs, and in those inhabitants of Peru and the adjacent countries who take it in excess or are markedly susceptible to its influence.

The injection of coca leaves has a very remarkable effect upon the higher tracts of the nervous system--an effect curiously contrary to that produced by their chief ingredient upon the peripheral parts of the nervous apparatus. The mental power is, at any rate subjectively, enhanced in marked degree. In the absence of extended experiments in psychological laboratories, such as have been conducted with alcohol, it is not possible to say whether the apparent enhancement of the intellect is an objectively demonstrable fact. The physical power is unquestionably increased, such muscular exercises as are involved in ascending mountains being made much easier after the chewing of an ounce or so of these leaves. Excess in coca-chewing leads in many cases to great bodily wasting, mental failure, insomnia, weakness of the circulation and extreme dyspepsia. For other pharmacological characters and the therapeutic employments of coca see Cocaine.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Garcilasso de la Vega, writing of the plant, says that it is called _cuca_ by the Indians, _coca_ by the Spaniards; and Father Blas Valera states that the leaves are called _cuca_ both by Indians and Spaniards (_The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, 1609-1617; trans, by C. R. Markham, Hakluyt Soc., 1871). See also, on the name _cuca_, Christison, _Brit. Med. Journ._, April 29, 1876, p. 527.

COCAINE, C17H21NO4, an alkaloid occurring to the extent of about 1% in the leaves of _Erythroxylon coca_ (see above). It is associated with many other alkaloids: cinnamyl cocaine, C19H23NO4; [alpha]-truxilline, (C19H23NO4)2; [beta]-truxilline, (C19H23NO4)2; benzoylecgonine, C16H19NO2; tropa-cocaine, C15H19NO2; hygrine, C8H15NO; cuscohygrine, C13H24NO2. These substances, which may be collectively termed "cocaines," are all derivatives of ecgonine (q.v.). Cocaine is benzoylmethyl ecgonine. It crystallizes from alcohol in prisms, which are sparingly soluble in water. Its solution has a bitter taste, alkaline reaction, and is laevorotatory. Its use as a local anaesthetic (see ANAESTHESIA) makes it the most valuable of the coca alkaloids, and it is much used in ophthalmic practice. Applied to the conjunctiva it causes anaesthesia, dilatation of the pupil, diminution of the intraocular tension, and some interference with accommodation. The conversion of the mixture obtained by extracting coca-leaves into cocaine is effected by saponifying the esters into ecgonine and the respective acids, and then benzoylating and methylating the ecgonine. Homologues of cocaine--ethylbenzoylecgonine, &c.--have been prepared; they closely resemble natural cocaine. Cinnamyl cocaine is cinnamylmethylecgonine, i.e. cocaine in which the benzoyl group is replaced by the cinnamyl group. [alpha]- and [beta]-truxillines, named from their isolation from a coca of Truxillo (Peru), are two isomeric alkaloids which hydrolyse to ecgonine, methyl alcohol, and two isomeric acids, the truxillic acids, C18H16O4. The alkaloids are therefore methyl truxillylecgonines. The truxillic acids have been studied by K. Liebermann and his students (_Ber._, vols. 21-27, and 31), and are diphenyl tetramethylene dicarboxylic acids.

COCANADA, or COCONADA, a town of British India, in the Godavari district of Madras, on the coast in the extreme north of the Godavari delta, about 315 m. N. of Madras. Pop. (1901) 48,096, showing an increase of 18% in the decade. As the administrative headquarters of the district, and the chief port on the Coromandel coast after Madras, Cocanada was formerly of considerable importance, but its shipping trade has declined, owing to the silting of the anchorage, and to the construction of the railway. It is connected by navigable channels with the canal system of the Godavari delta, and by a branch line with Samalkot on the East Coast railway. The anchorage is an open roadstead, with two lighthouses. The chief exports are rice, cotton, sugar and oilseeds. Mills have been established for cleaning rice. The town contains a second-grade college, a high school, and a literary association.

COCCEIUS [strictly KOCH], JOHANNES (1603-1669), Dutch theologian, was born at Bremen. After studying at Hamburg and Franeker, where Sixtinus Amama was one of his teachers, he became in 1630 professor of biblical philology at the "Gymnasium illustre" in his native town. In 1636 he was transferred to Franeker, where he held the chair of Hebrew, and from 1643 the chair of theology also, until 1650, when he succeeded Fr. Spanheim the elder as professor of theology at Leiden. He died on the 4th of November 1669. His chief services as an oriental scholar were in the department of Hebrew philology and exegesis. As one of the leading exponents of the "covenant" or "federal" theology, he spiritualized the Hebrew scriptures to such an extent that it was said that Cocceius found Christ everywhere in the Old Testament and Hugo Grotius found him nowhere. He taught that before the Fall, as much as after it, the relation between God and man was a covenant. The first covenant was a "Covenant of Works." For this was substituted, after the Fall, the "Covenant of Grace," to fulfil which the coming of Jesus Christ was necessary. He held millenarian views, and was the founder of a school of theologians who were called after him Cocceians. His theology was founded entirely on the Bible, and he did much to promote and encourage the study of the original text. In one of his essays he contends that the observance of the Sabbath, though expedient, is not binding upon Christians, since it was a Jewish institution. His most distinguished pupil was the celebrated Campeius Vitringa. His most valuable work was his _Lexicon et Commentarius Sermonis Hebraici et Chaldaici_ (Leiden, 1669), which has been frequently republished; his theology is fully expounded in his _Summa Doctrinae de Foedere et Testamento Dei_ (1648).

His collected works were published in 12 folio volumes (Amsterdam, 1673-1675). See Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopädie_.

COCCIDIA, an important order of Sporozoa Ectospora, parasites possessing certain very distinctive characters. With one or two possible exceptions, they are invariably intracellular during the entire trophic life of the individual. They always attack tissue-cells, usually of an epithelium, and never blood-corpuscles. Correlated with the advanced degree of parasitism, there is a complete absence of specialization or differentiation of the cell-body, and the trophozoite is quite incapable of any kind of movement. In all cases, so far as known, the life-cycle is digenetic, an asexual generation (produced by schizogony) alternating with a sexual one (gametogony). After conjugation of two highly-differentiated gametes has taken place, a resistant oocyst is formed, which provides for the dispersal of the species; inside this sporogony (spore- and sporozoite-formation) goes on.

History.

Hake (1839) was, perhaps, the first to describe a Coccidian, but he regarded the parasites as pathological cell-products. In 1845 N. Lieberkühn pointed out the resemblances to Gregarines, with which organisms he considered Coccidia to be allied. A year later, H. Kloss proved the existence of similar parasites in the snail, and attempted to construct their life-history; this form was subsequently named _Klossia helicina_ by A. Schneider. The asexual part of the life-cycle was first described by Th. Eimer in 1870, for a Coccidian infesting the mouse, which was afterwards elevated by Schneider into a distinct genus _Eimeria_. The generic name _Coccidium_ was introduced by R. Leuckart in 1879, for the parasite of the rabbit. It was many years, however, before the double character of the life-cycle was realized, and the ideas of L. and R. Pfeiffer, who first suggested the possibility of an alternation of generations, for a long time found no favour. In the first decade of the 20th century great progress was accomplished, thanks largely to the researches of F. Schaudinn and M. Siedlecki, who first demonstrated the occurrence of sexual conjugation in the group; and the Coccidian life-history is now one of the best known among Sporozoa.

Habitat: effects on host.

Coccidia appear to be confined[1] to four great phyla, Vertebrates, Molluscs, Arthropods and Annelids; the first named group furnishes by far the most hosts, the parasites being frequently met with in domestic animals, both birds and mammals. Following from the casual method of infection, the epithelium of the gut or of its appendages (e.g. the liver [Plate I., fig. 1]) is a very common seat of the parasitic invasion. But in many cases Coccidia are found in other organs, to which they are doubtless carried by lymphatic or circulatory channels. In Molluscs, they often occur in the kidneys (fig. 2); in Insects, they are met with as "coelomic" parasites, the fat-bodies, pericardial cells, &c., being a favourite habitat; even the testis is not free from their attentions in one or two instances, though the ovary appears always immune.

The parasite invariably destroys its host-cell completely. The latter is at first stimulated to abnormal growth and activity and becomes greatly hypertrophied, the nucleus also undergoing karyolytic changes (fig. 4). The fatty materials elaborated by the host-cell are rapidly used up by the Coccidian, as nourishment; and at length the weakened and disorganized cell is no longer able to assimilate but dies and is gradually absorbed by the parasite, becoming reduced to a mere enclosing skin or envelope. In some cases (ex. _Cyclospora caryolytica_ of the mole) the parasite is actually intranuclear, the nucleus becoming greatly swollen and transformed into a huge vacuole containing it.