Who first used cocaine to numb the cornea during eye surgery?

The Viennese surgeon Carl Koller first used cocaine as a surface anesthetic to numb the cornea during eye surgery in 1884.12

Koller’s discovery was prompted by his colleague Sigmund Freud, who had asked him to investigate the physiological effects of the drug. After experimenting with its properties, Koller concluded that cocaine was an effective alternative to general anesthesia for ophthalmic procedures, effectively inaugurating the modern era of local anesthesia.12