PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF COPPER SALTS. 1045 



so far as known, for a systematic search for the metal throughout the 

 vegetable kingdom has never been made, do not amount to more than 

 the veriest traces. In the work done on the question of the natural 

 occurrence of copper it is a noticeable fact that fresh, unmanipulated 

 vegetable products invariably have yielded the lowest amounts and 

 that the highest have been found in such things as chocolate and other 

 much-handled substances. In animals it is natural to expect copper to 

 be more abundant than in plants, since copper undeniably has a ten- 

 dency to accumulate in the system to some extent. One of its most 

 usual depositing places is the liver. 



All these facts, however, relative to the frequent occurrence of small 

 amounts of copper in unexpected places have no bearing on the ques- 

 tion whether the metal is injurious to health or not. If it is injurious 

 to health, the fact that it sometimes occurs naturally in wheat is to be 

 deplored, but is no excuse for artificially introducing it into another 

 food. If it is not injurious, the addition would be less culpable, but by 

 no means laudable. Copper is certainly not needed by the human sys- 

 tem, and when introduced the organism can make no use of it, but sets 

 to work at once to expel as much as possible of it. 



As to whether the metal in small doses is injurious or not, this is 

 still a debatable question. It seems quite evident that it is not nearly 

 so poisonous as it was once reputed. Since large doses, however, 

 unquestionably produce markedly unpleasant, though possibly not 

 deadly, effects, it seems a plausible conclusion that small ones are not 

 altogether innocuous. 



Galippe made careful experiments, first on dogs and subsequently on 

 himself and family, as to the effect of daily repeated small doses of 

 copper, and came finally to the conclusion that they were not injurious. 

 His experiments have been tried by others, though not on so extensive a 

 scale, and as a general thing with the same result. He, however, has 

 been trying to do a hard thing prove a negative. The mere fact that 

 one man can bear a certain medicine very well by no means proves that 

 his neighbor is equally insusceptible. Common experience is sufficient 

 to show this. One man habitually uses tobacco; to another it is an 

 acrid poison. Granting for a moment that copper is injurious, it might 

 very well follow that M. Galippe and his fellow experimenters formed 

 a copper habit, and acquired the power of tolerating the metal in a 

 manner analogous to the way in which toleration for many notorious 

 poisons arsenic or morphin, for instance can be attained. It is not 

 contended, of course, that this was necessarily so, but the fact remains 

 that M. Galippe's results, which he interprets to mean that copper is 

 absolutely non-poisonous, may be interpreted in other ways. 



On the whole, it may be said that the question of the poisonous na- 

 ture of copper salts is still an open one, and science is not yet ready to 

 form an opinion. This being the case, it is believed that the practice 

 of coppering peas, even when it is made known to the consumer, should 

 be discouraged, and surreptitious coppering' should be repressed. 



