Why people test cocaine on their gum line?

Question

Why people test cocaine on their gum line?

In: 6587

Answer 1

The first experimental studies on the anaesthetic properties of cocaine were undertaken by ophthalmologist Carl Koller, who worked alongside Sigmund Freud in Vienna. Freud, fascinated by the stimulatory effects of the drug, used it extensively on patients and himself and became addicted to it. Koller realized that the numbness that occurred when coco leaf was chewed might be exploited medically. He applied cocaine topically to the cornea of several animals and then, in 1884, he performed the first operation using it as a local anaesthetic on a patient with glaucoma.