ABSTRACT
Dr. W. A. Hammond made some remarks upon his personal experience with some of the preparations of cocaine. He had used only the fluid extract, various wines, and hydrochlorate of cocaine. In three cases of melancholia in women who refused to speak, injections of hydrate of cocaine had overcome the prolonged silence. The first was a marked case of melancholia with stupor, and the patient had not spoken for nine months. The effects of cocaine, as far as he had observed, were similar to those described by Dr. Hammond, but besides the action upon the heart, the great volubility and the unrest, he had noticed hallucinations and delusions, but no homicidal or suicidal tendency. Dr. J. Leonard Corning thought there was a morbid fear of cocaine spreading through the country, and he thought the remarks of Dr. Hammond were timely, as they would tend to allay the prejudice against a most useful remedy.
