COPPER
Metallic copper, like metallic lead, is not poisonous, but its oxides are; it should, therefore, not be swallowed, as it is rapidly acted on by the intestinal secretions and poisonous compounds formed. An alloy of copper is used for ornamenting ginger-bread, &c. All the salts of copper are poisonous. The most important are, however, the sulphate, blue-stone, or blue vitriol, and the subacetate or verdigris.
Copper is eliminated to a slight extent by the urine. It has been found in the stomach, liver, and intestines eight months after its administration had been discontinued. It has also been detected more readily in the bronchial secretion than in the urine.
Symptoms of Poisoning by Copper
Acute.—The primary action of the sulphate of copper in from five- to fifteen-grain doses is that of a quick emetic; in larger doses, a powerful irritant; but when absorbed, it appears to act chiefly on the brain and nervous system. Its irritant action is marked by nausea, vomiting, griping pain in the belly, which is greatly distended, and increased flow of saliva. The vomited matters are of a bluish or greenish colour, and the discharges from the bowels greenish and containing blood. The vomited matters become blue on the addition of ammonia. The above-mentioned symptoms usually follow immediately after the poison is swallowed, and rapidly increase in severity. After a time, the remote effects supervene, marked by headache, giddiness, laboured breathing, quick irregular pulse, coma or convulsions, paralysis, and death.
In poisoning by this substance, the convulsions are most violent, and wild incoherent delirium not infrequent.
The subacetate of copper or verdigris produces symptoms not unlike those just described. Jaundice and suppression of urine may result when either this or the sulphate is taken.
Chronic.—Constant and troublesome irritation of the stomach and bowels; vomiting and purging, attended with considerable straining at stool; loss of appetite, loss of power, and general emaciation set in. The patient is subject to frequent trembling of the limbs, which may end in paralysis. The mouth is unpleasant, and a coppery, metallic taste is experienced. Cramps or colicky pains in the belly are not infrequently present. Jaundice is sometimes present. The vomited matters are greenish; but the practitioner must not be led away, and thus mistake the colour of the vomited matters which occur in some morbid states of the bile, for the result of poisoning by a salt of copper. A form of chronic poisoning affecting workers in this metal has been described by some French pathologists as “copper-colic.” A cachectic condition of the system, accompanied with one or more of the symptoms already detailed, marks this form of poisoning. A purple line along the margins of the gums is present in some cases.
Copper poisoning may result from—
1. Its introduction into the system by using, for culinary purposes, copper vessels not properly tinned. An interesting account of poisoning from this source may be found in the second volume of the Medical Observations and Inquiries by a Society of Physicians in London, published 1764. The cases there recorded occurred on board ship, with most alarming symptoms.