History of Cocaine

A History of Cocaine sheds light on the early history of the cocaine industy when cocaine was a legal drug manufactured by major pharmaceutical companies.

This book contains annotated translations of three rare, previously untranslated, late nineteenth and early twentieth century manuscripts on the chemistry, botany and economics of the cocaine industry, highlighting the little known role of Netherlands and Indonesia.

The first translation explores the Indonesian cocaine trade and contains a detailed account of coca cultivation in Java. It provides an overview of the methods used to refine cocaine, and a general survey of its medicinal chemistry. The other two translations include general histories of the industry but written from different perspectives. They contain a wealth of interesting detail, mostly unknown to the general reader, and largely unknown to historians as well.

The book will be of great interest to toxicolgists, criminalists and forensic experts but will also be fascinating for the general reader.

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History of Medicine and Medical Biography

Steven B Karch