COP 



[ 104] 



COP 



state, either in masses, grains, or 

 crystallized in cubes and octohe- 

 drons. The most abundant, and 

 most generally diffused ore, and 

 that from which the metal is chiefly 

 obtained, is thesulphuret of copper, 

 termed copper pyrites, composeJd of 

 copper, sulphur, and a small portion 

 of iron. Copper has never been 

 combined with carbon, hydrogen, 

 or azote ; but it combines readily 

 with sulphur and phosphorus, 

 forming with them compounds 

 called sulphuret and phosphuret of 

 copper. Copper, having the prop- 

 erty of increasing the hardness of 

 gold without injuring its colour, is 

 used in the making of gold coin ; 

 that of Great Britain is an alloy of 

 11 parts of gold and 1 of copper. 



COPEPO'DA. The fourth order of the 

 class Crustacea. 



CO'PPEBAS. (copparosa, It. couperose, 

 Fr. Jcupferwasser, Germ.) Sulphate 

 of iron; green vitriol. Sulphate 

 of iron has a fine green colour; 

 its crystals are transparent rhom- 

 boidal prisms, the faces of which are 

 rhombs, with angles of 79 50' and 

 100 10' inclined to each other at 

 angles of 98 37' and 81 23'. It 

 has a strong styptic taste, and 

 reddens vegetable blues. It is pre- 

 pared by moistening the sulphurets 

 of iron, which are found native in 

 abundance, and exposing them to 

 the open air. These are slowly 

 covered with a crust of sulphate 

 of iron, which is first dissolved in 

 water and, subsequently, by means 

 of evaporation, obtained in crystals. 



C'OPPLE-STONES. Boulders ; cobble- 

 stones, which see. 



CO'PROLITE. The petrified fascal 

 matter of carnivorous reptiles ; the 

 petrified faecal remains of certain 

 fishes. The following description of 

 coprolites is taken from a memoir 

 on the subject, by Professor Buck- 

 land, published in the transactions 

 of the Geological Society, as well 

 as from his splendid Bridgewater 



Treatise : " In variety of size and 

 external form, the coprolites re- 

 semble oblong pebbles or kidney 

 potatoes. They, for the most part, 

 vary from two to four inches in 

 length, and from one to two inches 

 in diameter. Some few are much 

 larger, and bear a due proportion 

 to the gigantic calibre of the largest 

 ichthyosauri; some are flat and 

 amorphous, as if the substance had 

 been voided in a semifluid state ; 

 others are flattened by pressure of 

 the shale. Their usual colour is 

 ash-grey, sometimes interspersed 

 with black, and sometimes wholly 

 black. Their substance is of a 

 compact earthy texture, resembling 

 indurated clay, and having a con- 

 choidal and glassy fracture. Their 

 structure is in most cases tortuous, 

 but the number of coils is very 

 unequal ; the most common number 

 is three. Some coprolites, especial- 

 ly the small ones, shew no traces 

 of contortion. The sections of these 

 fa3cal balls, show their interior to 

 to be arranged in a folded plate, 

 wrapped spirally round from the 

 centre outwards, like the whorls of 

 a turbinated shell ; their exterior 

 also retains the corrugations and 

 minute impressions, which, in their 

 plastic state, they may have re- 

 ceived from the intestines of the 

 living animals. Dispersed irregu- 

 larly throughout the petrified faces, 

 are the scales, and occasionally the 

 teeth and bones, of fishes, that seem 

 to have passed undigested through 

 the bodies of the saurians ; just as 

 the enamel of teeth, and sometimes 

 fragments of bones, are found un- 

 digested both in the recent and 

 fossil album gracum of hyaenas." 

 On the shore at Lyme Regis, in 

 Dorsetshire, coprolites are found in 

 great abundance, lying scattered in 

 the ground like potatoes. The true 

 character and real nature of the 

 coprolite was long misunderstood, 

 having formerly been called Juli, 



