244 ASTRINGENT, IRRITANT, ANTISEPTIC, AND TONIC 



nated with diarrhoea, colic, imperfect nutrition, muscular 

 weakness and trembling, and occasional hsemoglobinuria 

 or haematuria. All these symptoms arise from the gastro- 

 enteritis set up, and are similar to the effects produced by 

 any corrosive. The antidotes consist of white of egg, wash- 

 ing out the stomach, administering demulcents, and allaying 

 irritation and pain, if need be, by morphine. 



Chronic poisoning occasionally occurs among animals de- 

 pastured in the neighbourhood of copper-smelting works, 

 but such effect may in part depend upon the arsenic present 

 in copper ores. This is shown by gradual unthriftiness, 

 emaciation, and increasing weakness, and is relieved by 

 removal of the cause, and good feeding. 



COPPER SULPHATE. Cupri Sulphas. Cupric Sulphate. Blue 

 Vitriol. Blue Stone. CuS0 4 5H 2 0. 



Copper sulphate is got by dissolving the black oxide in 

 sulphuric acid, by boiling metallic copper with sulphuric 

 acid, and on the large scale by roasting copper pyrites 

 (CuFeS 2 ), when both the copper and iron are oxidised into 

 sulphates ; at the red-heat used the iron sulphate is decom- 

 posed, and the copper sulphate crystallised from a hot 

 watery solution. Blue vitriol made from pyrites always 

 contains iron, which does not, however, interfere with its 

 medicinal uses. It occurs in large blue triclinic prisms, 

 with a styptic metallic taste. Exposed to the air, it 

 effloresces and becomes covered with a greenish-white 

 powder of carbonate. It is almost insoluble in alcohol, but 

 soluble in 3J parts of cold water, and in 2J of glycerin. 



ACTIONS AND USES. In moderate doses or weak solutions 

 it is antiseptic, astringent, and tonic in the alimentary tract. 

 Even small doses induce emesis in dogs and other carnivora. 

 Large doses and concentrated solutions are irritant and 

 caustic. Externally, applied to a mucous membrane or a 

 wound, it combines with the albumin of the tissues with 

 which it comes into contact, and is used as a stimulant, 

 astringent, and caustic. Like many other metallic salts, it 

 arrests the action of enzymes and of organised ferments, and 

 has an inhibitory action on parasites such as worms. 



