[483]. It is very questionable whether Cubebs is entitled to any other preference over the copaiva, than that it is not so liable to derange the digestive organs. As a specific for gonorrhœa it has received praise altogether too unqualified. The most convenient form in which it can be given is that of Tincture. Ed.
[484]. Cŭminum makes long the penultima, thus—
“Rugosum Piper et pallentis grana Cumini:”
Pers: Sat: v.
This line of the satirist also records an opinion which is worthy notice, that Cumin will make those who drink it, or wash themselves with it, or as some say, who smoke it, of a pale visage. This belief is mentioned by Dioscorides; and Pliny informs us that the disciples of Porcius Latro, a famous master of the art of speaking, were reported to have used Cumin, in order to imitate that paleness which their master had contracted by his studies; thus too Horace,
——Proh si
“Pallerem casu, biberent exsangue Cuminum.”
Epist. 19. Lib. 1, lin: 18.
[485]. It may be here observed that Copper, in its metallic form, exerts no action on the system. A most striking instance of this fact occurred during my hospital practice, in the case of a young woman who swallowed six copper penny-pieces with a view of destroying herself; she was attended by Dr. Maton and myself in the Westminster Hospital for two years, for a disease which we considered visceral, but which was evidently the effect of mechanical obstruction, occasioned by the coin. After a lapse of five years she voided them, and then confessed the cause of her protracted disease, during the whole course of which no symptom arose which could in any way be attributed to the poisonous influence of copper. Dr. Baillie, in his morbid anatomy, relates a case, in which five halfpence had been lodged in a pouch in the stomach, for a considerable time, without occasioning any irritation; and Theodore Gardelle, after his conviction for the murder of Mrs. King, in Leicester Square, swallowed a number of halfpence, for the purpose of destroying himself, but without producing any ill effects. Mr. A. T. Thomson relates also two cases of halfpence being swallowed by children, in one of which the copper coin remained six months in the intestines, and in the other two months. The filings of copper were formerly a favorite remedy in rheumatism, a drachm of which has been taken with impunity for a dose. It appears therefore that metallic copper does not undergo any change in the digestive organs by which it is converted into a poison, notwithstanding the presence of substances, which, out of the body, would at once render it destructive, as we have too many cases to shew, from the careless use of copper utensils in cookery. It is, however, a very important fact, that copper cannot be dissolved while tin is co-existent in the mixture, hence the great use of tinning copper utensils; and farther, it is asserted that untinned coppers are less liable to be injurious when pewter spoons are used for stirring, than when silver ones are employed for that purpose; the explanation of this fact is to be sought for in the well-known principle of Electro-Chemistry, and which has lately been applied with so much ingenuity by the illustrious President of the Royal Society, for the protection of copper on the bottom of ships, by the juxta-position of small discs of Tin or Iron.[[486]] For the same reason, M. Proust has shewn that the tinning of kitchen utensils, which consists of equal parts of tin and lead, cannot be dangerous from the presence of the latter metal, since it is sufficient that the lead should be combined with tin, in order to prevent it from being dissolved in any vegetable acid. M. Guersent therefore is wrong when, speaking of the tinning of copper vessels, he says, “it is a light veil, which conceals the danger, instead of being a true preservative, and that it only inspires a security often fatal.” Some recent experiments however, of Dr. Bostock, have shewn that, in consequence of the volatility of acetic acid, copper is not protected by the juxta-position of discs of tin; since the acid under such circumstances ceases to form a part of the galvanic circle. The poisonous effects of the salts of Copper have been strikingly illustrated during the prosecution of Sir H. Davy’s experiments above alluded to, for it is found that when the copper sheathing of ships is not protected by the contact of another metal, they are uniformly free from marine animals, but that where the solution of the copper is prevented by galvanic action, the bottoms soon become covered with every species of sea insect.
[486]. For a further explanation of this curious fact the student may consult my work on Medical Chemistry.