92 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



in 1884, confounded the professional world, as well as 

 that of science, by announcing the marvelous qualities 

 of cocaine as a local anesthetic. In this connection we 

 may further call attention to the fact that previous in- 

 vestigators of coca had already employed the physiolog- 

 ical method of injecting the alkaloid cocaine into the 

 veins of the lower animals, as well as the utilization of 

 other "scientific" methods of determining its value, 

 such laboratory investigations being accepted as con- 

 clusive evidence of the fact that coca, other than as a 

 mild stimulant, like tea or coffee, was worthless and in- 

 ert, and that its alkaloid, cocaine, was similar in effect 

 to caffeine. Physicians using coca were made subjects 

 of ridicule, as being incapable of judging a remedy's 

 qualities; pharmacists making preparations of the drug 

 were looked upon askance, as being concerned in a 

 fraud, while the natives who employed it in their daily 

 life, as well as the travelers who were impressed by 

 what they had observed of its effects, were regarded as 

 involved in ignorance, or imbued with superstitious 

 imaginings. Into these classes were cast such men as 

 Poeppig, von Tschudi, Scherzer, Stevenson, Weddell, 

 Spruce, Markham and others, both scientists and ob- 

 serving travelers, who spoke from personal observation 

 or experience, as well as such balanced commentators 

 as Sir W. J. Hooker, who accepted the energetic action 

 of coca as an established fact. Although other pessi- 

 mists contributed in the same direction, the most "au- 

 thoritative investigations" to the discredit of coca 

 appeared in the London Lancet, 1876, and in the Edin- 

 burgh Medical Journal, Vol. XIX, 1873, which may be 

 summarized as follows: 

 G. F. Dowdeswell, B. A., of London, England, being 



