302 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



for several reasons, as to lead this reviewer to accept 

 that, in justice to the problem as a whole, unusual atten- 

 tion is needful in its direction. He therefore devotes to 

 it more space than usual, and even then he appreciates 

 that he but faintly presents the story of this drug. 



Like some others, (Chionanthus for example), this 

 plant was introduced for one purpose which was later 

 lost to sight, other uses becoming conspicuous. Thus 

 coca was introduced as a stimulant and considered as a 

 substitute for tea and coffee; abandoned as inert by no 

 less an authority than Dr. E. R. Squibb, an alkaloid 

 of it, cocaine, was next found to possess most remark- 

 able qualities as a local anesthetic. 



Before the date of the publication of the first Amer- 

 ican Materia Medica, by Schoepf, in 1785, Dr. Law- 

 rence Van Derveer, of Roysfield, New Jersey, to whom 

 may be given the credit of its introduction, used scutel- 

 laria in his practice, believing it to be of exceeding value 

 as a remedy for hydrophobia. Dr. Van Derveer has 

 been charged with keeping his remedy a secret, but 

 although he became celebrated as an expert in treating 

 the disease, there is no evidence to show that he ever 

 kept the name of the drug private. For forty years he 

 had a widely extended neighborhood reputation as a 

 specialist in hydrophobia, during which time he treated 

 as many as four hundred persons (an average of ten a 

 year), with but one death. 



Nor need we look with suspicion upon the large num- 

 ber of cases of hydrophobia said to have been treated 

 by Dr. Van Derveer. Statistics from the most reliable 

 sources show that hydrophobia was either very common 

 a century ago, or the scare over it widely disseminated. 

 In our early life in Kentucky we continually heard of 



