In 1836 a girl, sixteen 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 diarrhœa.
§ 806. Subacetate of Copper, Subchloride, and Carbonate, all act very similarly to the sulphate when given in large doses.
§ 807. 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,[883] 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 perforation 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. In 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.
[883] Toxicologie, vol. i. p. 787 (5th ed.).
§ 808. 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[884] 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,[885] but this symptom was not noticed. Corrigan speaks of the line round the gums, but describes it as purple-red. Among workers in copper, Lancereaux[886] has seen a black coloration of the mucous membrane of the digestive canal; its chemical characters appear to agree with those of carbon.