antimalarial, antibacterial, and vasodilatory, among others. Scientists
believe these interactions (which are often toxic or lethal) occur because
of evolutionary selection pressure that favors the development of an
alkaloid by one species as it interacts with another.
The question must be asked; why would the coca plant synthesize
cocaine? Chemists have discovered that cocaine functions as a pesticide,
powerfully inhibiting neurotransmitters (the chemicals that nerves use to
interact with other nerves) in the brains of insects that would otherwise
threaten the coca plant. In essence, the honeybee is offered a tantalizing
“bolus of blow” that tempts them to stay and continue to fertilize the
plant. A bee that is high is a useful foot soldier in the game of fertilization.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to learn that we have thousands of
the same molecular receptors in our bodies that function across the
spectrum in the plant and animal kingdoms.
Although the chemical structure of cocaine was not accurately
described until 1898 (by Richard Willstätter, a future Nobel laureate), the
isolation of cocaine had been achieved by German pharmacists in 1859.^11
It seems like an obvious first move to place cocaine in the mouths of
research subjects (read: medical students), replicating the Incan model.
Numbness of the oral surfaces was invariably noted, although many young
men also behaved bizarrely. In Würzburg, and later Vienna, pharmacists
noted positive effects upon persons with melancholy dispositions and
among Bavarian soldiers who were under severe physical duress.
Vienna was alive with speculation about the possibilities with the new
drug. The Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) heard about
the new drug, considering it “magical.” In 1884 he wrote his fiancée, “I
take very small doses of it regularly against depression and against
indigestion, and with the most brilliant success.”^12 At the Vienna Clinic of
Ophthalmology (mere steps away from Billroth’s surgical amphitheater), a
junior intern, Carl Koller, had been experimenting with drugs to
anesthetize the eye, including morphine, sulfate, chloral, and bromide.
Koller’s mind was prepared.
Koller had been assisting in experiments on cocaine, and decided to
place the substance in his own mouth. Appreciating the effects upon his
own oral mucosa, Koller knew the next step was an animal experiment. In
1884, with a colleague holding down a large frog, Koller prepared a
solution by mixing cocaine powder into distilled water. He placed a drop