Heroin

I get e-mail from Horace M. It has this picture: Huh? Must be some urban legend, right? So I google and I snope. This is what I find: ⊗ Felix Hoffman was a chemist working for Aktiengesellschaft Farbenfabriken, in Germany. ⊗ In 1897, he synthesized a drug, diacetylmorphine, to be used as a "less addictive" replacement for morphine. ⊗ Because this new drug made you feel heroic (heroisch, in German), they called it (gasp!): Heroin. ⊗ Felix Hoffman was also involved in the creation of another drug: acetylsalicylic acid ⊗ Aktiengesellschaft Farbenfabriken is now called Bayer. ⊗ Heroin is no longer available thru Bayer. ⊗ Acetylsalicylic acid is now sold as Aspirin. Fascinating, eh? 'course, once-upon-a-time, Coca Cola contained cocaine. Indeed, it still contains extracts from coca leaves hence trace amounts of cocaine! It also contains caffeine extracted from the Kola nut. With both cocaine & Kola, that explains the name coca-cola, originally sold in soda fountains. And did you know that "cocaine" was isolated and named (in 1859) by Albert Niemann , another German chemist? The world is full of interesting things Butterfly wings, fairy tale kings Each new day undoubtedly brings Still more fascinating things ... with apologies to Bobby Darin.