660 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 839 . 
of copper salts on man, and with the experiments of Orfila, Blake, 
C. Ph. Falck, and others. 
Roger 1 experimented on the effect of copper leguminate which was 
administered subcutaneously ; he found gradually increasing paralysis of 
the motor spinal tracts, which finally destroyed life by paralysis of the 
breathing centre. The heart beat after the breathing had stopped. The 
irritability and contractility of the muscles of frogs were lost, while 
sensibility remained. He also found that, if the copper was injected into 
the intestinal vessels, the dose had to be doubled in order to destroy life ; 
that is, doubtless, because the liver, as it were, strained the copper off 
and excreted it through the bile. Roger was unable to destroy life by 
large doses of copper given by the mouth, for then vomiting supervened 
and the poison in great part was removed. 
Bernatzic 2 considers that the poisonous properties of copper are 
similar to those of zinc and silver. He says : “ Silver, copper, and zinc 
are, in their medicinal application, so much allied that, with regard to 
their action, they graduate one into the other and show only minor 
differences ; copper, which is a little the more poisonous of the three so 
far as its remote action is concerned, stands between the other two. If 
taken, in not too small a quantity, for a long time, the functional activity 
of the muscular and nervous systems is influenced injuriously, the 
development of the animal cells is inhibited, the number of the red 
blood corpuscles decreased, and therefore the oxidising process and 
metabolism are likewise diminished, leading ultimately to a condition 
of marked cachexia. . . . From a toxic point of view, the three metals 
named also stand near each other, and their compounds differ from 
other metals injurious to the organism in this, that they do not produce 
notable changes of the tissues or coarse functional disturbances leading 
to death as other poisonous metals, and therefore are not to be con¬ 
sidered poisons in the same sense as lead, mercury, arsenic, antimony, 
phosphorus are considered poisons ; for, on stopping the entry of the 
poison, any injurious effect is completely recovered from and the 
functions again become normal.” 
Lehmann 3 also has experimented on the effects of copper ; his 
experiments were made on both animals and men. He found that 
small quantities were more thoroughly absorbed than medium or large 
doses ; the method of separation appeared to be different in different 
animals—thus, the chief copper-excreting organ in dogs is the liver, in 
rabbits the intestine, and in man the kidneys. Of 3 mgrms. of copper 
taken by a man in three days, 1 mgrm., or a third, was recovered from 
the urine. Lehmann experimented on 6 rabbits, 4 cats, and 1 dog. 
1 Revue de Medecine, 1877, xii. 
2 Encyeloped, d. ges. Heilkunde, xi. 429. 
3 Munch, med. Wochenschrift, 1891, Nr. 35 u. 36. 
