Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
"It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?"
- Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four (1890)
Yesterday I posted an advertisement for Cocaine Toothache Drops and mentioned that some weird and not so wonderful items were included in pharmaceuticals around the turn of the century.
Over the next few days I will present some more in that vein (ha ha).
Today, more about the use of cocaine in medicines, pharmaceuticals and drinks.
