98 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



dried in the publication (Ephemeris) recording Dr. 

 Squibb's faith in the results of the physiological investi- 

 gations of Bennett and Dowdeswell, before it was an- 

 nounced in a letter to Dr. Squibb, dated September 19, 

 1884, from Dr. Henry D. Noyes, a physician of New 

 York then in Kreuznach, Germany, (Ephemeris, Nov., 

 1884), (610a), that a medical student named Koller, of 

 Vienna, had discovered that a solution of hydrochlo- 

 rate of cocaine was possessed of marvelous qualities as 

 a local anesthetic. 



This letter of Dr. Noyes was immediately given a 

 setting, or reference was made thereto, in every phar- 

 maceutical and medical journal of America. Such an 

 authority as Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, of Philadelphia, wrote 

 as follows in the Medical Record, October, 1884 (418a) : 



"We have today, (October 18, 1884), used the agent 

 in our clinic at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 with most astonishing and satisfactory results. If fur- 

 ther use should prove to be equally satisfactory, we will 

 be in possession of an agent for the prevention of suffer- 

 ing in ophthalmic operations of inestimable value." 



Came also leading editorials in the various publica- 

 tions on medicine and pharmacy, of which that from 

 the pen of Mr. Henry B. Parsons, editor of the Drug- 

 gists' Circular, is typical. From this we quote (199a) : 



"For the past month American medical journals have 

 fairly bristled with reports from various hospital sur- 

 geons, and it is pleasing to note that, on the whole, the 

 claims first made for this remedy have been sustained. 

 It seems to be proved that, in the majority of cases, the 

 application to the eye of a few drops of a 2 or 4 per cent 

 solution of this salt will produce a more or less com- 

 plete, but transient, insensibility to pain, with enlarge- 



