Nitrate of Copper, Cu(NO3)23H2O, is officinal; it is very soluble.
Cuprum Aluminatum.—A preparation, called cuprum aluminatum (Pierre divine), is in use in France and Germany, chiefly as an external wash. It is composed of 16 parts cupric sulphate, 16 potassic nitrate, 16 alum, fused in a crucible, a little camphor being afterwards added.
Regular and irregular medical practitioners, veterinary surgeons, farriers, and grooms, all use sulphate of copper (bluestone) as an application to wounds. Copper as an internal remedy is not in favour either with quacks or vendors of patent medicines. The writer has not yet found any patent pill or liquid containing it.
(2) Copper in the Arts.—Copper is used very extensively in the arts; it enters into the composition of a number of alloys, is one of the chief constituents of the common bronzing powders, is contained in many of the lilac and purple fires of the pyrotechnist, and in a great variety of pigments. The last-mentioned, being of special importance, will be briefly described:—
Pigments:—
Schweinfurt and Scheele’s Green[872] are respectively the aceto-arsenite and the arsenite of copper (see article “[Arsenic]”).
[872] The synonyms for Schweinfurt green are extremely numerous:—Mitic green, Viennic green, imperial green, emerald green, are the principal terms in actual use.
Brighton Green is a mixture of impure acetate of copper and chalk.