EFFECT OF COPPER SULPHATE. 21 



The effects of copper upon the higher animals have been studied by 

 a large number of investigators, and the following results may be 

 appropriately cited: 



Metallic copper and its oxides, mixed with sugar, albuminoids, and 

 fats, had no noticeable effect upon dogs; even 8 grams of fine powder 

 (4 grains each of copper monoxide and dioxide) caused only a slight sick- 

 ness. Verdigris in small amounts produced none of the violent results 

 it is supposed to cause in man. Soluble salts of copper can be given in 

 quantities up to 1 gram daily, but more than this has a fatal effect. 08 



Dogs that had eaten half a gram of copper acetate per day for 24 

 days suffered but slightly; one dog was unaffected by doses as high as 

 5 grams at a time. 6 Similar results were obtained by Du Moulin, c who 

 gave dogs and rabbits as much as 3 to 5 grams, causing sickness but 

 in no case death, and Hippolyte Kuborn d states that a dog can take 4 

 grams of copper sulphate with but slight effect. 



Ellenberger and Hofmeister e experimented with sheep, giving them 

 from 18 to 182i grams of copper in quantities sometimes as large as 

 2 grams per day, with fatal results. Tschirsch^ deduced from this that 

 the nontoxicity of weak solutions of copper does not hold for rumi- 

 nants, but this seems hardly warranted. Two grams per day can 

 scarcely be considered a small amount, yet one sheep lived 53 days 

 and the other 128. 



Ever since copper compounds have come into general use as fungi- 

 cides, the question as to their effect upon the human system has 

 received more or less attention. 9 ' At times there have been vague 

 and misleading statements in the public press, calculated to alarm 

 those who are in the habit of using vegetables and fruits which have 

 been subjected to treatment with Bordeaux mixture. The popular 

 belief seems to be that copper is a poison, but it is found upon exami- 

 nation that the very best authorities are by no means agreed upon this 

 point. It is true that after the question had been discussed for seven 

 months before the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine, in 1885, it 

 was finally decided that copper compounds in foods were harmful, but it 

 should be remembered that in the whole discussion, where every effort 

 was made by one side to show that copper was an actual poison, not a 



Burcq & Ducom, Journal de Pharmacie et Chimie, 25: 546, 1877. 



& Galippe, Journal de Pharmacie et Chimie, 23 : 298. 



c Du Moulin, Journal de Pharmacie et Chimie, 5 : 189. 



d Hippolyte Kuborn, Congres Internationale d'Hygiene, 2: 216, 1878. 



Ellenberger and Hofmeister, Archiv fur wissench. u. prakt. Thierheilkunde, 9: 

 325, 1883. 



/ Tschirsch, Das Kupfer vom Standpunkte der gerichtlichen Chemie, Toxicologie 

 und Hygiene, Stuttgart, 1893. 



Q Spraying Fruits for Insect Pests and Fungous Diseases, with a Special Consider- 

 ation of the Subject in Its Relation to the Public Health. TJ. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 7, 1892. See also Bull. No. 6, Div. Veg. Path., 

 U. S. Dept. Agric. 



