268 copper. 



tharides, it is sometimes used as an application for destroying warts 

 and other excrescences. It is also used as a useful stimulant to 

 change the surface of foul ulcers, and for checking the growth of 

 fungus, being applied under the form of ointment, mixed with lard. 

 Combined with vinegar and honey it forms the Oxymcl JBrugbds 

 of the pharmacopoeias, and has long been applied to the same pur- 

 poses ; but a solution of the sulphate of copper in common oxymel, 

 is recommended by Mr. Brande as a preferable substitute. 



Ammoniated Copper, Cuprum Ammoniatum, Ph. L. — This 

 salt is usually prepared by triturating two parts of the sulphate 

 of copper with three of the carbonate of ammonia, the carbonic 

 acid of the latter being disengaged, while the ammonia combines 

 with the sulphate. It is of a rich blue or violet colour, and has a 

 saline styptic taste. The ammoniated copper has been given, 

 apparently with advantage, as a tonic and antispasmodic, in chorea, 

 epilepsy, and dysphagia. The dose is half a grain, gradually 

 increased to five grains, given twice or three times a-day, in the 

 form of pill. 



All the salts and oxides of copper are poisonous. Verdigris, 

 which is one of the most active of these poisonous preparations, is 

 sometimes taken in the food in a state of solution in wine or 

 vinegar, or in combination with oily matters. The ordinary 

 symptoms are a peculiar coppery taste in the mouth, dryness and 

 constriction of the throat, nausea, constant ptyalism, violent head- 

 ache, vomiting, and griping pains in the stomach and bowels. The 

 alvine dejections are sometimes bloody, sometimes black ; the 

 pulse small, hard, quick, and irregular ; ardent thirst, cold sweats, 

 vertigo, cramps in the lower extremities, jaundice, and, when the 

 case ends fatally, convulsions very generally precede death. The 

 appearances after death are chiefly marks of inflammation, or of 

 gangrene in the alimentary canal. In some instances the intes- 

 tines have been found perforated by ulceration, and their contents 

 discharged into the sac of the peritoneum. Sugar and syrups have 

 been considered the best antidotes for the poison of copper. From 

 the experiments of M. Orfila on dogs, however, it appears that sugar 

 only acts as an emollient after the poison has been expelled from the 

 stomach, and that it produces no effect if retained by a ligature on 



