In the 1880s,

ophthalmologist Carl Koller recognized that there was a lack of    

good anesthetic options for his eye surgery patients.

He was inspired by his mentor Sigmund Freud’s obsession with cocaine,

so he decided to try injecting it  

locally and…ta-da! This drug does temporarily  blocks nerve signals from the affected area,  

which made it the ideal turn of the century  surgery breakthrough. We now use other, safer  

anesthetics for routine procedures, but if you  want to learn more about how cocaine was used this  

year, in 2022, for a groundbreaking new procedure,  subscribe to Seeker and check out the full episode.