Albrecht Erlenmeyer

The first American edition, which prints only a part of one chapter of the original German edition -- the portion that deals with treatment and therapy. Erlenmeyer was a physician, neurologist and psychiatrist, and he also wrote books on treating epilepsy and on reorganizing the German asylum system. A chapter in this volume debunks the apparently widespread notion that cocaine was useful in treating morphine addiction, and concludes that "the last state [cocaine abuse] is often worse than the first." The German pharmaceutical company Bayer developed two "wonder drugs" in the early 1890s, in an attempt to avoid the addiction problem that came with morphine use -- aspirin and heroin. It was only later that the addictive properties of the latter were recognized. An uncommon book:… (altro)