Ernst Fleischl von Marxow was studying anatomical pathology when he injured his finger while dissecting a cadaver. The injury became infected, necessitating the amputation of his thumb. As a result, he refocused on physiology, obtaining his doctoral degree in medicine in 1874. He spent the next six years unlocking the secrets of the human body's electrical system. In 1880 he became a full professor at the University of Vienna and expanded his studies into physiological optics, the mechanics of the eye.
Ten years younger, Sigmund Freud was impressed with Marxow and sought to build a friendship when they both worked at the same institute.
"A most distinguished man, for whom both nature and upbringing have done their best. Rich, trained in all physical exercises, with the stamp of genius in his energetic features, handsome, with fine feelings, gifted with all the talents, and able to form an original judgment on all matters, he has always been my ideal and I could not rest till we became friends and I could experience pure join in his ability and reputation."
The friendship would inadvertently be Marxow's downfall. Marxow had spent the intervening years coping with the pain that resulted from the amputation, using both morphine and heroin. Further infections impacted his life to such a degree that he contemplated suicide. To distract himself from his suffering, he solved every mathematical equation he could find and even learned sanskrit. The drugs helped him to manage the pain, but he ultimately became a functional addict. At the same time, his friend Freud was working with a new medical "miracle drug" known as cocaine. When he and a colleague found Marxow on the floor, delirious with pain, Freud suggested he try it, believing it could not only ease the pain, but it could also break Marxow's morphine addiction.
Initially the morphine use dropped and Freud was convinced his friend was cured. Unfortunately it was simply a matter of one affliction being replaced by another. The result was the transformation of a functional addict into a drug addled man who was hopelessly addicted to cocaine. The initial small doses rapidly increased to as much as a gram a day intravenously. Marxow became poisoned by the cocaine and was plagued with hallucinations. Freud worked to help his friend through the cocaine addiction but was unsuccessful. Marxow spent days convinced that snakes and bugs were crawling under his skin. Worse, unbeknownst to Freud, Marxow was back on morphine and addicted to that as well. Freud had inadvertently created the first cocaine addict. Marxow would live, in pain and drug addiction, for six more years until, on October 22, 1891, he passed away from an infection at the age of 45.
Freud would suffer from guilt for the rest of his life, always keeping a photo of his friend over his desk. In the fall of 1896, the day of his father's funeral, Freud ended all research and use of cocaine, deeply regretting his involvement in the promotion of the drug.
-Professor Walter
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