“Brown-Séquard regards the effect as a new sample of inhibitory action, his experiments convincing him that Cocaine acts through the medium of the peripheral nerves on the nervous centres, which react in bringing about inhibition of sensibility. The phenomena which result from the injection of Cocaine at the level of the larynx, he finds to be the same as those which are consecutive to the application of a jet of carbonic acid on the mucous membrane of that organ. Two minutes after the injection there is a generalised anæsthesia and an analgesia of the different wounds made on the body of the animal. The cutaneous anæsthesia lasts only a few minutes, but the analgesia of the wounds persists even till the following day. If fresh wounds are made, these, far from being analgesic, become, on the contrary, hyperalgesic. That which proved that Cocaine acts on the nervous centres, and particularly on the cerebellum, is that injections of this substance produced sometimes a rolling motion to the side opposite to the injection, and at others a turning motion. Evidence of the inhibitory action is offered by another of Brown-Séquard’s experiments: when the dose of Cocaine injected was large enough to produce convulsions, it was sufficient to pull or forcibly flex the toes to immediately stop the convulsions. In animals which died under these conditions the temperature of the body after death was as high as 44°·4 C, or 111°·6 F.”—Brown-Séquard in Prosser James’ “Guide to New B.P.” In Vienna, Cocaine has been recommended for use internally in cases of great exhaustion, such as loss of blood, sunstroke, or diarrhœa, also by mouth or hypodermically as a cure for morphine and alcohol craving. Morphine and Cocaine appear to be mutually antagonistic. Cocaine has been used in some cases of melancholia and insomnia; it also possesses aphrodisiac properties. It was likewise found to lessen the desire for sleep and feeling of hunger, and to be a stimulant which quickly increases and sustains, in a harmless manner, the physical powers of the body, such as are required in long marches, mountain ascents, &c., in dose of ¾ to 1½ grains. Cocaine is a stomachic, useful after excess either in eating or drinking, in distaste for food, in sea-sickness and vomiting of pregnancy, or from other causes; it also improves the condition of the stomach in atonic indigestion and nervous affections of this organ, as well as in phthisis and cachectic cases, especially those arising from the use of mercury. CHAPTER XVI. MEDICAL NOTES AND REFERENCES. Cocaine is a mydriatic; slightly raises the temperature, quickens respiration, and pulse is more frequent; by long use, sleep is longer and more profound. Improves nutrition, useful in insomnia and simple melancholia.—M.R. 1883, 86.