RT Journal
A1 Markel H
T1 Über coca: Sigmund freud, carl koller, and cocaine
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2011
FD April 6
VO 305
IS 13
SP 1360
OP 1361
DO 10.1001/jama.2011.394
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.394
AB 
In the spring of 1884, a 28-year-old Viennese neurologist named Sigmund Freud published “Über Coca,” a superb medical analysis of cocaine hydrochloride.1- 2 Although the monograph was an early career milestone for the ambitious physician, it also represented a missed opportunity. Using himself as his experimental subject over several months, Freud consumed a great deal of cocaine as he recorded the drug's physiological effects and potential therapeutic uses. However, he skimmed over cocaine's most important clinical use as a local anesthetic. In a hurried last paragraph, a postscript really, Freud noted that “cocaine and its salts have a marked anesthetizing effect when brought into contact with the skin and mucous membrane in concentrated solution.” Without offering any additional data or experiments, Freud merely concluded that these properties “should make it suitable for a good many applications.”2