[f. COCA + -INE.] An important alkaloid obtained from the leaves and young twigs of the coca plant, valuable as a local anæsthesiant.
1874. Schorlemmer, Man. Chem. Carbon Compounds, 483. Cocaïne C17H21NO4 … is the active principle of the coca-leaves.
1886. Brit. & Col. Druggist, 31 July. The valuable alkaloid cocaine, whose properties as a local anæsthetic have created almost a revolution in ophthalmic and other branches of surgery.
attrib. 1887. Braithwaite, Retrosp. of Med., XCV. 11. Cocaine Cotton for toothache. Ibid., XCIX. 371. Cocaine anæsthesia.
Hence, Cocainize v. to treat or affect with cocaine, to render insensible by means of cocaine; Cocainization, treatment with cocaine; Cocainism, the chronic condition produced by excessive use of cocaine as a stimulant (cf. alcoholism).
1881. Med. News, 18 April, 451/2. A leading cause of morphinism, chloralism, and cocainism is the facility with which morphine, choral, and cocaine can be procured from pharmacists.
1887. Lauder Brunton, Pharmacol. Therap. (ed. 3), 226. Stimulation of [the nerve] produces contraction in the cocainised pupil.
