[FREUD, Sigmund (1856-1939)]. Üeber Coca [appearing in: Centralblatt für die Gesammte Therapie, pp. 289-313]. Vienna: Mortiz Perles, 1884.
8vo. Later quarter black morocco, marbled sides, cloth corners; original printed wrapper bound in (losses at edges).
FIRST EDITION of this rare issue in book form, first appearing in this highly regarded medical journal (only 2 copies in institutional holdings); an offprint edition was also issued.
“Aside from his psychoanalytical treatises, Freud's essay on coca and cocaine is almost his best-known work. The essay provided the best comprehensive review of the subject that had yet appeared, describing the early history of the coca plant and its use by South American native populations, the first European accounts of the plant in the sixteenth century, and the isolation of the alkaloid cocaine in 1859. Freud also presented his observations (with himself as subject) [Freud used cocaine at least until the mid-1890s] on the effects of the drug, describing its abolition of hunger and fatigue, the exhilaration and lasting euphoria it produced, and its supposed non-addictiveness - a misapprehension he would later bitterly regret, as misuse of the drug contributed to the death of his dear friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow. Freud recognized the drug’s anesthetic qualities and suggested its use as a topical anesthetic; unfortunately, Dr. Leopold Königstein, the colleague to whom he suggested its trial, procrastinated, and the crucial experiments were performed by the ophthalmologist Carl Koller, who subsequently achieved worldwide recognition as the discoverer of local anesthesia” (Norman). Garrison & Morton 1880.1; Grinstein 14; Norman F7 (offprint issue). A Horowitz high spot.