Antedating of "Cocaine"

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>:

> cocaine (OED 1874)
>
> 1861 _Madras Journal of Literarature and Science_ 1 Dec. 271 (19th
> Century UK Periodicals)  A chemical analysis gives an alkaloid,
> "Cocaine,"" which bears a strong resemblance to Aconite, the active
> principle of Bella donna, and like it, has the property of dilating
> the pupil of the eye.

The Chemical News [London] July 28, 1860 p.83 col. 2

The leaves of the Erythroxylon Coca are used in Peru as a stimulant
like opium,
and from them Niemann, the assistant of Wohler, has succeeded in isolating the
active principle, an organic base, to which he has given the name of Cocaine.3

http://books.google.com/books?id=XeQEAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA83&dq=cocaine+date:1855-1860&lr=&as_brr=3

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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