Author: SCHROFF, C. (D. Von)
Title: Vorläuffige Mittheilungen über Cocaïn. ... Separatabdruck...
Description: Wien, Gedruckt bei Carl Ueberreuter, 1862. 4to. 1960ties red cloth, spine giltlettered (spine somewhat fading.). (23, I (blank) pp.). (Titlepage overall some soiling, 1 spot to the left center; last leaf righthand margin strengthened.). Offprint. 'Separat-Abdruck aus nr. 30 etc. des Wochenbl. der Zeitschr. der k.k. Gesellsch. d. Aerzte zu Wien, 1862.' Hirsch vol. V, p. 147: Ferchl, p. 488: Sykes, Essays on the first 100 years of anaesthesia, vol. II, p. 80: 'Professor Schroff noted the numbing effect of cocaine on the tongue in 1862, after Albert Niemann had isolated the alkaloid in 1859, but this observation waited for 22 years before Karl Koller (1857 - 1944) put it into practical use in ophthalmology in 1884.': Baas-Handerson, p. 963: '... he investigated experimentally the action of drugs, or their most active constituents, upon animals, and as W. Alexander and Hahnemann had done at an earlier period, upon healthy men also.': Schroff describes experiments with cocaine (received form Merk) on frogs and rabbits and on himself. The isolation of cocaine took place in 1859 by Albert Niemann, from coca leaves brought from Peru. (Published Göttingen, 1860). The earliest suggestion of its use as a local anaesthetic was published in a study by Moreno y Maiz, Paris, 1868. Vasili Anrep studied the action of cocaine and also suggested, in 1880, that it might be used as a local anaesthetic [See G&M items 1865, 1868, 1871]. Schroff, however, shortly after Niemann and 6 years before Moreno y Maiz, does not reach this conclusion, although he hints at it: '... dass in allen Fallen, wo man die beruhigende, Schlaf machende, ANÄSTHESIRENDE und die Muskelerregbarkeit herabstimmende Wirkung der Coca wünscht, das Cocaïn den Vorzug verdient;...' (rather than alcohol extract or leaves).

Keywords: medicine pharmacology pharmacy materia medica Doos37