COPPER. 
§§ 842-844.] 
tained blood, albumen, and colouring-matter from the bile. On the 
fourth day there was marked jaundice. The mucous membrane was 
very pale, the temperature low, pulse frequent ; and great weakness, 
cardiac oppression, and restlessness were experienced. There were 
diarrhoea and tenesmus, the motions being streaked with blood ; the 
urine also contained much blood. The liver was enlarged. The patient 
died in a state of collapse on the seventh day. 
In 1836 a girl, 16 months old, was given bluestone to play with, 
and ate an unknown quantity ; a quarter of an hour afterwards the 
child was violently sick, vomiting a bluish-green liquid containing some 
pieces of sulphate of copper. Death took place in four hours, without 
convulsions, and without diarrhoea. 
§ 842. Subacetate of Copper, Subchloride, and Carbonate, all act 
very similarly to the sulphate when given in large doses. 
§ 843. Post-mortem Appearances. —In Maschka’s case, the chief 
changes noted were in the liver, kidneys, and stomach. The substance 
of the liver was friable and fatty ; in the gall-bladder there were but a 
few drops of dark, tenacious bile. The kidneys were swollen, the cortical 
substance coloured yellow, the pyramids compressed and pale brown. 
In the mucous membrane of the stomach there was an excoriation 
the size of a shilling, in which the epithelium was changed into a dirty 
brown mass, easily detached, laying bare the muscular substance 
beneath, but otherwise normal. 
In a case of poisoning by verdigris (subacetate of copper) recorded 
by Orfila, 1 the stomach was so much inflamed and thickened that 
towards the pyloric end the opening into the intestine was almost 
obliterated. The small intestines throughout were inflamed, and per¬ 
foration had taken place, so that part of the green liquid had escaped 
into the abdomen. The large intestines were distended in some parts, 
contracted in others, and there was ulceration of the rectum. I 11 other 
cases a striking discoloration of the mucous membrane, being changed 
by the contact of the salt to a dirty bluish-green, has been noticed, and, 
when present, will afford valuable indications. 
§ 844. Chronic Poisoning by Copper. —Symptoms have arisen among 
workers in copper or its salts, and also from the use of food accidentally 
contaminated by copper, which lend support to the existence of chronic 
poisoning. In the symptoms there is a very great resemblance to those 
produced by lead. There is a green line on the margin of the gums. 
Dr Clapton 2 found the line very distinct in a sailor and two working 
coppersmiths, and the two men were also seen by Dr Taylor. Cases of 
chronic poisoning among coppersmiths have also been treated by Dr 
Cameron, 3 but this symptom was not noticed. Corrigan speaks of the 
1 Toxicologie, i. 787 (5th ed.). 2 Med. Times and Gazette, June 1868, p. 658. 
3 Med. Times and Gazette, 1870, i. 581. 
