96 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



the eulogistic commendations of "country" physicians 

 in American medical prints. 



Paralyzing to such as these were the adverse "au- 

 thoritative" reports concerning the worthlessness and 

 inertness of coca (196a). All this, together with the 

 variations in quality of the commercial article, which 

 were later confirmed by Professor H. H. Rusby, M. D., 

 (564), very much disturbed the talented, careful and 

 exceptionally conscientious chemist, Dr. Edward R. 

 Squibb, of Brooklyn, N. Y., the leading American 

 manufacturing pharmacist of that date, who accepted 

 the statements of Dowdeswell, to the discredit of the 

 practicing physician. In the height of the commercial 

 demand for coca, Dr. Squibb determined to sacrifice 

 his commercial opportunities to his professional ideals, 

 and to accept the provings of "laboratory physiol- 

 ogists," by excluding all coca preparations from his 

 pharmaceutical list, commending tea and coffee in their 

 stead. He writes as follows in his Ephemeris, (610a), 

 July, 1884: 



"Almost every purchase (of the crude drug L.) has 

 been made on mental protest, and he (Squibb) has been 

 ashamed of every pound of the fluid extract sent out, 

 from the knowledge that it was of poor quality; and 

 there seems to be no more prospect of a supply of a 

 better quality than there was this time last year, be- 

 cause so long as an inferior quality sells in such enor- 

 mous quantities at good prices, the demands of trade 

 are satisfied. 



"Under this condition of the markets, the writer has 

 finally decided to give up making a fluid extract of 

 coca, and has left it off his list, adopting a fluid extract 

 of tea instead, as a superior substitute, for those who 



