Monocaine (fictional compound)
From Kook Science
Monocaine (monocane) is a fictional compound used in the synthesis of an invisibility formula devised by Dr. Jack Griffin, the eponymous Invisible Man of the 1933 film. In the script, written by Robert Cedric Sherriff, the compound is described as a "terrible drug" by the character Dr. Cranley in an exchange with Dr. Arthur Kemp, and further detailed as being "made from a flower that grown India" that "draws color from everything it touches," and which had been experimented with for bleaching but destroyed the material, and also had apparently been tested on a dog, the end result being that "it turned the dog dead white, like a marble statue" and "sent it raving mad." The compound was not mentioned in H. G. Wells original novel, being purely the invention of Sherriff for the film, and inspired the brand name of the later anaesthetic drug monocaine.[1]
No further detail on the Indian flower was suggested by the film nor is any possible real world analogue known at this time.
References
- ↑ * Griep, Mark A.; Mikasen, Marjorie L., "Invisibility Steals the Seen: Chemistry Creates Criminal Opportunities", ReAction! Chemistry in the Movies, UK: Oxford University Press, p. 35-64