Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 9, 2025

Large-Scale SARS-CoV-2 Testing Utilizing Saliva and Transposition Sample Pooling
Published on: June 23, 2022
Burnett's "Cocaine" for dandruff
Linda Y Tang1, Theodore A Alston2
1Duke University Trinity College, 101 Wannamaker Drive, Durham, NC 27708.
Abstract:
Joseph Burnett manufactured the diethyl ether used for William T.G. Morton's public demonstration of inhaled surgical anesthesia on October 16, 1846 (Ether Day). A later Burnett product was a hairdressing oil claimed to prevent baldness and dandruff. It contained cocoa-nut oil and was called Cocoaine. In 1902 and 1903, it was sometimes advertised as Burnett's Cocaine (rather than Cocoaine), possibly to emulate the economic success of coca-based beverages such as Vin Mariani and Coca-Cola. Coca leaves are now decocainized before use in preparation of Coca-Cola, and the recovered cocaine is used for scientific and dwindling medical purposes.
