On a New Organic Base in the Coca Leaves is an 1860 dissertation written by Albert Niemann.[1] Its title in German is Über eine neue organische Base in den Cocablättern. The piece describes, in detail, how Niemann isolated cocaine, a crystallinealkaloid. It also earned Niemann his Ph.D., and is now in the British Library. He wrote of the alkaloid's "colourless transparent prisms" and said that, "Its solutions have an alkaline reaction, a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a peculiar numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue." Niemann named the alkaloid "cocaine" — as with other alkaloids its name carried the "-ine" suffix.
