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Cocaine was isolated in 1860 and first used as a local anesthetic in 1884. Its first clinical use was by Sigmund Freud to wean a patient from morphine addiction. The fictional character Sherlock Holmes was supposed to be addicted to cocaine by injection.
Cancer has been around as long as humankind, but only in the second half of the twentieth century did the number of cancer cases explode.
If you could remove all of your skin, it would weigh up to 5 pounds.
Opium has influenced much of the world's most popular literature. The following authors were all opium users, of varying degrees: Lewis Carroll, Charles, Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Oscar Wilde.
People with high total cholesterol have about two times the risk for heart disease as people with ideal levels.