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COCAINE.
351
South America, as Peru and Chili. The leaves resemble those
of Chinese tea, and in the preparation of the alkaloid it is
necessary that they should be of the best quality, which depends
upon their being gathered at a proper time, carefully dried and
not injured by age or by exposure to the air, as moisture deprives
them of all value. Erythroxylon Coca is different from choco-
late or Theobroma Cacao. Pure cocaine is in the form of
transparent prisms, without smell, bitter to the taste, soluble in
seven hundred parts of cold water, more soluble in alcohol, and
entirely soluble in ether. The solution has an alkaline reaction,
and, when applied to the tongue, it imparts a bitter taste, and a
certain insensibility, followed by a slight sensation of cold, recall-
ing the effect of ether spray upon the epidermis. Heated to
208° F., the cocaine becomes liquid, and under the influence of
cold, it becomes a transparent mass, which gradually assumes a
crystalline form. If it be exposed to a higher heat than 208° F.,
cocaine changes its color and decomposes. It is inflammable,
and burns with a brilliant flame, leaving an ash. It forms
soluble salts with acids (its hydrochlorate is one of the best), and
all these salts are more bitter than the alkaloid. It is a com-
pound of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The chemical
composition of the alkaloid is C,7H2iN04 ; its reaction is
strongly alkaline.
The hydrochlorate of cocaine is generally employed in surgery,
and is in the form of a white crystalline powder, which is spar-
ingly soluble in water, but readily soluble in alcohol, ether, oil
and vaseline. At first a 2 per cent, solution was used, but sub-
sequently it was increased to four, five, ten and twenty per cent.
Medical Properties and Physiological Action.— Dr. Niemann, of
Goslar, as early as i860, noted the fact that cocaine, when ap-
plied to the tongue, produced local anaesthesia, but his investiga-
tions, as well as those of others at a later period, appear to have
been forgotten, until 1884, when Dr. Koller, of Vienna, demon-
strated the action of cocaine, in solution, on the eye.
Locally applied to the mucous membrane, cocaine acts as an
anaesthetic, the blanching of the membrane being followed by
marked congestion. It has a powerful action on the eye on ac-