This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
Cocaine has been the vaunted remedial local anæs thetic in all forms of pain and suffering; yet it seems that its use in dentistry cannot be availed indiscrirminately. I have been called a number of times, by a neighboring dentist to attend his patrons, to whom he had given cocaine hypodermically, and without anæsthetic influence; per contra, a decidedly deleterious effect had been wrought in each person, requiring several hours for its complete counteraction by the use of opiates and stimulants.
The first case to which I was called was that of a young man, single, and a saddler by occupation, by the incidental right of his trade, a strong man, yet under the deleterious influence of cocaine, was completely unnerved. The dentist had inserted the cocaine in the gums. When seen, the patient was bathed in a cold perspiration, his eyes glistening, yet the pupil was not dilated; complaining