PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
ent, Dr. Squibb now threw all his efforts into a new investigation of 
coca and its alkaloid, his process of manufacture being yet a standard, 
and his writings on cocaine being yet authority. These need but be 
referred to as occupying many pages in the Ephemeris, 1884-5. T hey 
stand as a lasting memorial to the man who took pleasure in publicly 
correcting an error, and whose record in American pharmacy is monu- 
mental. 
The discovery of the anesthetic qualities of coca marked the be- 
ginning of an epoch in medication whose story, in connection with the 
past, pleads irresistibly for tolerance of thought and action toward men 
who know that which they know by reason of personal experience and 
the art of empirical experimentation. Perhaps in no other instance 
has the almost hopeless cry for recognition of the facts developed by 
empiricism been more prominently illustrated than by the struggle of 
this drug. One of the greatest blessings to humanity, it was for nearly 
three centuries neglected by men of science and subjugated by profes- 
sional prejudices. At last the eminent botanist and pharmacologist 
Henry H. Rusby, M.D., was led to undertake a journey to South 
America in behalf of science, coca being a dominant factor, in which 
enterprise the great pharmaceutical house of Parke, Davis & Co., of 
Detroit, who financed the expedition, deserves great credit. The result 
of Dr. Rusby’s study is presented in The Therapeutic Gazette (564), 
1886, pp. 14-18, and 1888, pp. 1 58-303, and it may be added that this 
exceptionally valuable treatise is at this date not less important than 
when written. 
Needless is it to do more than refer to the marvelous reaction that 
followed Koller’s discovery of the power of cocaine as a local anesthetic. 
A library would be required to shelve the works devoted, eulogistically, 
to the new discovery. A volume would scarcely print the names of the 
enthusiastic converts to cocaine, formerly so discredited, and the titles 
of their contributions. 
Let us now do tardy justice to the prophetic words of the seer-like 
poet, who so often foresees that which others either neglect or do not 
appreciate. The poet Cowley, 1618-1667 (170a), in his Book of 
Plants, published in 1662, not only mentions coca, but sets forth that 
marvelous drug in terms that, neglected and discredited for nearly 
three centuries, need to-day no apology, as evidenced by the following 
translation: 
Eulogy of Coca 
From Cowley’s Book of Plants,* V : 783-838. 
Translated from the Latin by Margaret Stewart, M. A. 
The vine departs; and all the deities of the old world applaud, 
and with purpled hands seize the clusters. Bacchus, in jesting 
a hare Eg a ee ives Cowley describes a feast of the gods, including the deities 
erican dei 
Worlds. ides, , 
ins, = on heel deiey. Foshemeina the les, and Bacchus offers wine to Omelochi 
. a : 
what free rendering. Several editions of Cowl s “Sex Libri Plantarum” are on the 
shelves of the Li “ i 
: _Lloyd brary. The one from x 
24 
