Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-09-05
MANIFOLD USES OF COCAINE.
A Rapidly Increasing Demand for it
What IL Elects.

From the New York Tribune.
The use of cocaine as an an@thetic and q
therapeutic has been taken up rapidly by the
medical profession and its application has been
made in q remarkable variety Of forms Of dis
ease. DR.. Knapp, professor of ophthalmoogy
in the medical department Of the university
of the city of New York, in q recent
work "On Cocaine and its Use in Oph-
thalmic and General Surgery" says
mo modern remedy has been received by the
profession with such general enthusia n. none
has become so rapidly popular, and scarcely any
one has shown so extensive a field of useful APP
plication as cocaine" The author states his
belief that its properties will be the subject OF
scientific researches and chemical observations
all over the globe for many years to come.
read before the Medical society of Vienna in
October. 1884, and was devoted principally to
a consideration OF the use of cocaine in an
this paper was published the attention
of oculists in this country was attracted to the
Medical Record by q physician of this city who
had heard the paper read. Cocaine was
at once put into use in the treat
Experiments were rapidly made on the effect
OF cocaine as an an@sthetic on other mem
branes, in the ear, the mouth, the nose, the
trachea and the lafynx. 1t was learned that
the tongue and the soft palate became numbed
with its use either as spray or when applied
porarily destroyed by the drug, and also the
sense of smell. The spraying Of the larynx, in
case of bronchitis, allayed irritation and gave
tear ducts, in removing tumors and in.srew inc
tOenails, in earache threat troubles the removal
OF bullets lei and the removal of superfiuous hairs
from the upper lip of a female patient in dem
tai surgery, in excisions neuralgia, hypoder-
mic injections for pain and headache through
treatment of the eyes.
All these uses were discovered and applied
by American practitioners within two months,
that is: up to December "a, 1884. The English
ciative afterward," says DR.. Knapp, and they
were walked up to the remarkable advantage
OF. Of a rev rev, emedy fully six weeks later than
their American brethren, whereas they
ought TO nave been two weeks before them"
The general advantages of the use of the drug
were found to be that its action was transient
and it did away with reflex excitabilty in the
patient. Its useful fields were found to be in
opthaimoiogy, 0toogy rhinology, layrngology
gynecology and general surgery
"A Weil-known physician of this city who
probably uses as much cocaine as any other
practitioner here-$5O or $50 worth u month
considers 1t one of the most, if not the most,
valuable drug as a local therapeutic agent.
s fhe aGey in the upper
Is applied on small pledget of cotton
saturated with the solution. \ bent probe is
pharynx. The highest value of the drug seems
TO De IN Its use in the larynx, which is apt to
close spasmodicallyias soon as touched.
The secret of the value of the cocaine in its
Application TO the mucous surfaces is that it
penetrates the exterior coat of the membrane
and produces rigid contraction of the muscular
fibers, causing thereby a striking diminution of
the caliber OF the bloOd-vessels themselves.
One important disease which cocaine has
been found to reach, in consequence of the
property just stated, is hay fever. The diseased
condition of the mucous membrane of the nose
in pronounced case of hay fever is marked
with a swelling of the veins and blood vessels
generally. This is due to Il lack of action of the
nerves of the coats of the mucous membrane
Cocaine causes contraction of the muscular
hn xvI,i Ito 4 hon
treme dilation does not RETURN In several mild
cases OF this kind, complete relief has been OBJ
tanned by the use of the drug Cases of bron-
chitis have been cured, the explanation lying
IN the action of the drug in controlling the
blood supply, diminishing the caiber Of the
blood,vessels and thereby essening the mucous
mOdic asthma has been successfully treated
The physician referred TO above says that he
considers that there is hardly local agent 80
valuable or SO sure in it's action as cocaine. He
has been unable to find that the action of the
drug is more than local, and he has observed
no reaction following it's local use There is no
danger of a cocaine habit" being formed, in
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