342 
ANTIDOTE TO THE SALTS OP COPPER. 
large quantity of carbonic acid which it contains (in 100 parts, 
carbonic acid 45, soda 31, water 29,) causes it to be less 
caustic, than the other alkaline carbonates. I have not yet 
had occasion to employ this in any case of poisoning in the 
human subject. I may observe that we ought not to lose 
sight of the indispensable necessity of exciting vomiting, so 
as to expel as much as possible the excess of poison. 
Before M. Orfila had elevated toxicological science to its 
present rank, we may call to mind what were the means used 
to counteract the effects of the preparations of which I have 
spoken: solutions of sugar; these means being effectual 
how can we explain the result? It may be that the carbon of 
the sugar coming in contact with the oxygen of the water and 
of the oxide of copper, passes to the state of carbonic acid, 
and then the same reaction is produced as by the means I have 
recommended. 
We have a recent example of the effect of sugar in an 
observation of M. Lesage, relative to a young man, who, 
wishing to destroy himself, took the sulphate of copper in a 
highly sweetened drink, and by accident escaped, the poison 
being thus neutralized. 
From the foregoing, we may conclude that if sugar by one 
of its elements, may give rise to the formation of carbonic 
acid, and form insoluble compounds with the salts of copper, 
we should not be astonished that the bicarbonate of soda should 
possess this property in a higher degree. 
Milk has also been for a long time considered an antidote 
to the salts of copper; the acid, it is true, separates the curd 
which precipitates; but it does not really render much service 
under these circumstances, unless it acts as a soothing applica- 
tion. Jour, de Chimie Med. 
