CHARCOT JEAN BAPTISTE: (1867-1936) French Polar Scientist and Doctor. A curious and interesting content A.L.S. ...

CHARCOT JEAN BAPTISTE: (1867-1936) French Polar Scientist and Doctor. A curious and interesting content A.L.S., `J.B Charcot´, two pages, small oblong 8vo card, Neully sur Seine, 17th June 1910, to Monsieur Mariani, in French. The card bears the printed heading ''Deuxieme Expédition Antarctique Française 1908-1910'' (''Second French Antarctic Expedition 1908-10''), Charcot stating in part `I thank you a thousand times for your kind and pleasant sending. I can assure you that during our expedition we have blessed the wine, the tea and the elixir Mariani; several of us have been seriously ill, but thanks to you we have been able to ''recover'', and moreover when we have been sober and even healthy we did drink a small glass of the Mariani wine toasting for you.´ Small crease to the upper left corner, otherwise VG The Vin Mariani was a coca wine and patent medicine created in the 1860s by Angelo Mariani (1838-1914) a French chemist from the island of Corsica. Between 1863 and 1868 Mariani started marketing a coca wine called Vin Tonique Mariani (with Peruvian coca) which was made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves. Advertisements for Vin Mariani claimed that it would restore health, strength, energy and vitality. Popes Leo XIII and Pius X were both Vin Mariani drinkers, the first appearing on a poster endorsing the wine and awarding a Vatican gold medal to Mariani for creating it. Edison claimed it helped him stay awake longer. Ulysses S. Grant drank Vin Mariani while writing his memoirs, and other notables who endorsed Vin Mariani include Emile Zola, Charles Gounod, Sarah Bernhardt, etc..