known by the tests for that salt. Boiling water converts it partly into an insoluble brown powder, which is oxide of copper in union with a small proportion of acetic acid, and partly into a greenish-blue neutral acetate, which is dissolved, and may be known by the four tests for sulphate of copper, and the want of action of nitrate of baryta.
It may be right to notice shortly three other salts of copper, the nitrate, the ammoniacal sulphate, and the muriate. The nitrate forms a violet solution, which is acted on by reagents in the same way as the dissolved acetate, but has not any odour of vinegar. The ammoniacal sulphate [ammoniated copper—ammoniuret of copper], has been occasionally used in medicine. It forms, when solid, small scaly crystals, of an intense violet colour and strong ammoniacal odour; and when dissolved it retains its peculiar colour even though very much diluted.—The muriate of copper has a lively grass-green colour, and is acted on by reagents in the same way as the solution of verdigris.
Of the corrosion of copper by articles of food and drink.—To these observations on the chemical history of copper a few remarks must be added relative to the action of various articles of food or drink upon the metal. Unpleasant accidents have often happened from the use of copper vessels in the preparation of food; and it is therefore necessary for the medical jurist to know the circumstances, so far as they have been investigated, under which the poison may be dissolved.
Dr. Falconer found, that distilled water kept several weeks on a polished plate of copper, neither injured its lustre, nor acquired any taste, nor become coloured with ammonia;[1] and Drouard afterwards observed, that distilled water, kept for a month on copper filings, did not contain any of the metal.[2] Eller of Berlin, however, remarked, that water, if it contain a considerable quantity of common salt, as four ounces in five pounds, or a twentieth part, will give slight traces of copper after being boiled in a brass pan; and that if the pan be made of copper, a powder is procured by evaporation, which when treated with acetic acid yields so much as 20 grains of acetate of copper.[3] But it is a singular circumstance, also observed by the same experimentalist, that if beef of fish be boiled with the usual allowance of salt, and with the addition also of various vegetable substances, the liquid does not yield any copper. This observation has been lately denied by Professor Orfila; who says he found copper deposited on a plate of iron in salt water in which beef had been boiled, and that he also obtained copper from the beef itself.[4] The quantity thus dissolved, however, must be exceedingly small, if the copper be kept clean and free of oxide; for copper vessels,
- ↑ Falconer on the Poison of Copper, p. 23.
- ↑ Expériences sur l'Empoisonnement par l'oxyde de Cuivre. Diss. Inaug. Paris, 1802. Quoted in Orfila's Toxicol. i. 502.
- ↑ Sur l'usage prétendu dangereux de la vaisselle de cuivre dans nos cuisines. Histoire de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences de Berlin, 1756, p. 12.
- ↑ Toxicol. Gén. 1843, i. 612.
