Brunswick Green, originally a crude chloride of copper, is now generally a mixture of carbonate of copper and chalk or alumina.
Mountain Green, or Mineral Green, is the native green carbonate of copper, either with or without a little orpiment.
Neuwieder Green is either the same as mountain green, or Schweinfurt green mixed with gypsum or sulphate of baryta.
Green Verditer is a mixture of oxide and carbonate of copper with chalk.
Verdigris is an acetate of copper, or a mixture of acetates. Its formula is usually represented as (C2H3O2)CuO. It is much used in the arts, and to some extent as an external application in medicine. Its most frequent impurities or adulterations are chalk and sulphate of copper.
§ 802. Dose—Medicinal Dose of Copper.—Since sulphate of copper is practically the only salt administered internally, the dose is generally expressed as so many grains of sulphate. This salt is given in quantities of from ·016 to ·129 grm. (1⁄4 to 2 grains) as an astringent or tonic; as an emetic, from ·324 to ·648 grm. (5 to 10 grains).
The sulphate of copper is given to horses and cattle in such large doses as from 30 up to 120 grains (1·9 to 7·7 grms.); to sheep, from 1·3 to 2·6 grms. (20 to 40 grains); rabbits, ·0648 to ·1296 grm. (1 to 2 grains).
§ 803. Effects of Soluble Copper Salts on Animals.—Harnack has made some experiments on animals with an alkaline tartrate of copper, which has no local action, nor does it precipitate albumin. 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 mgrm. of copper oxide in this form, administered subcutaneously, was fatal to frogs, ·05 grm. to rabbits, ·4 grm. to dogs. The direct excitability of the voluntary muscles was gradually extinguished, and death took place from heart paralysis. Vomiting was only noticed when the poison was administered by the stomach.[873] The temperature of animals poisoned by copper, sinks, according to the researches of F. A. Falck, many degrees. These observations are in agreement with the effects of copper salts on man, and with the experiments of Orfila, Blake, C. Ph. Falck, and others.
[873] On the other hand, Brunton and West have observed vomiting produced in animals after injection of copper peptone into the jugular vein.—Barth. Hosp. Rep., 1877, xii.