Am  Jour.  Pnarm. 
Jan.,  1885. 
Cocaine  and  its  Salts. 
33 
craving  for  morphia.  This  circumstance  alone  should  be  sufficient  to 
ensure  for  cocaine  a  lasting  position  as  a  valuable  article  of  medicine. 
In  cases  where  the  treatment  can  be  prolonged  decreasing  doses  of 
morphia  and  increasing  doses  of  cocaine,  and  in  cases  where  rapid 
treatment  has  been  decided  upon  doses  of  0*1  gram  of  cocaine  alone 
are  subcutaneously  injected  as  often  as  the  craving  for  morphia  becomes 
apparent.  Dr.  Frend,  who,  amongst  other  instances,  completely  cured 
a  case  of  craving  for  morphia  within  ten  days  by  means  of  doses  of 
0*1  gram  of  cocaine  subcutaneously  injected  three  times  daily,  is  of 
opinion  that  morphia  and  cocaine  act  antagonisticalJy  to  each  other. 
The  treatment  of  dypsomania  seems  to  be  comparatively  much  more 
troublesome ;  the  first  attempts  appear  to  have  been  made  in  America 
and  to  have  resulted  fairly  favorably.  Cocaine  has  also  been  recom- 
mended as  an  aphrodisiac,  and  Dr.  Frend  seems  to  have  certainlj^ 
observed  sypmtoms  of  sexual  excitement  after  its  administration. 
As  already  observed,  cocaine  brought  into  immediate  contact  with 
the  mucous  membrane  seems  to  produce  temporary  insensibility  to 
feeling,  and  trials  have  been  made  with  it  not  only  in  cases  of  disease 
of  the  throat,  windpipe,  etc.,  but  results  have  also  been  obtained  in  the 
direction  of  producing  local  ansesthesia  for  the  purpose  of  operations 
on  the  mouth,  throat,  etc.  Cocaine  will  also  probably  come  into  impor- 
tant and  frequent  use  in  cases  of  ophthalmia. 
On  September  15  of  this  year,  at  the  meeting  of  ophthalmologists 
at  Heidelberg,  the  experiments  made  by  Dr.  Koller,  in  Vienna,  were 
fully  discnssed.  This  gentleman  experimented  on  various  occasions  on 
the  eyes  of  animals  and  also  upon  his  own  eyes,  and  found  that  imme- 
diately after  the  introduction,  by  dropping,  of  a  2  per  cent,  solution  of 
cocaine  hydrochlorate  a  burning  sensation  in  the  eye  lasting  for  about 
half  a  minute  resulted,  which  was  followed  by  an  indefinite  sense  of 
dryness,  the  opening  between  the  lids  of  the  eyes  under  treatment 
appeared  to  be  wider,  while  the  tendency  to  shrink  back,  which  would 
otherwise  manifest  itself  on  the  cornea  being  touched,  for  instance,  a 
twitching  back  of  the  head  or  of  the  eyelids,  or  the  tendency  of  the 
eye  to  draw  back  on  being  touched,  seemed  to  disappear,  so  that  in  this 
condition  it  was  possible  to  produce  by  pressure  a  dimple  on  the  cornea, 
or  even  to  lay  hold  of  the  conjunctiva  bulbi  with  tweezers  without 
producing  any  unpleasant-  sensation.  This  absence  of  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  eye  continued  for  about  ten  minutes,  but  a  certain  lack  of 
8 
