Supplementary facts: I once actually wrote something like a monograph on
a plant, namely, an essay on the coca plant, which drew the attention of
K. Koller to the anæsthetic properties of cocaine. I had hinted at this
use of the alkaloid in my publication, but I was not sufficiently
thorough to pursue the matter further. This suggests that on the
forenoon of the day after the dream (for the interpretation of which I
did not find time until the evening) I had thought of cocaine in a kind
of day phantasy. In case I should ever be afflicted with glaucoma, I was
going to go to Berlin, and there have myself operated upon, incognito,
at the house of my Berlin friend, by a physician whom he would recommend
to me. The surgeon, who would not know upon whom he was operating, would
boast as usual how easy these operations had become since the
introduction of cocaine; I would not betray by a single sign that I had
had a share in making this discovery. With this phantasy were connected
thoughts of how difficult it really is for a doctor to claim the medical
services of a colleague for his own person. I should be able to pay the
Berlin eye specialist, who did not know me, like anyone else. Only after
recalling this day-dream do I realise that the recollection of a
definite experience is concealed behind it. Shortly after Koller’s
discovery my father had, in fact, become ill with glaucoma; he was
operated upon by my friend, the eye specialist, Dr. Koenigstein. Dr.
Koller attended to the cocaine anæsthetisation, and thereupon made the
remark that all three of the persons who had shared in the introduction
of cocaine had been brought together on one case.
I now proceed to think of the time when I was last reminded of this
affair about the cocaine. This was a few days before, when I received a
_Festschrift_, with whose publication grateful scholars had commemorated
the anniversary of their teacher and laboratory director. Among the
honours ascribed to persons connected with the laboratory, I found a
notice to the effect that the discovery of the anæsthetic properties of
cocaine had been made there by K. Koller. Now I suddenly become aware
that the dream is connected with an experience of the previous evening.
I had just accompanied Dr. Koenigstein to his home, and had spoken to
him about a matter which strongly arouses my interest whenever it is
mentioned. While I was talking with him in the vestibule, Professor
Gärtner and his young wife came up. I could not refrain from
congratulating them both upon their healthy appearance. Now Professor
Gärtner is one of the authors of the _Festschrift_ of which I have just
spoken, and may well have recalled it to me. Likewise Mrs. L., whose
birthday disappointment I have referred to, had been mentioned, in
another connection, to be sure, in the conversation with Dr.
Koenigstein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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