A treatise on therapeutics : comprising materia medica and toxicology with especial reference to the application of the physiological action of drugs to clinical medicine / by H. C. Wood.

Wood, H. C., Jr. (Horatio C.), 1841-1920.

Date:: 1880

Credit: A treatise on therapeutics : comprising materia medica and toxicology with especial reference to the application of the physiological action of drugs to clinical medicine / by H. C. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

48/740 (page 44)

$CADMIUM. U.S. Ttis metal is employed in medicine to some slight extent in the form of its sulphate ( Cadmii Sulphas, U. S.)i which is stated to resemble closely the sulphate of zinc in its therapeutic properties. It has been especially used as an astringent stimulant in coUyria, made by dissolving half a gi-ain to four grains in an ounce of rose-water. Strangely enough, some physicians who have employed it state that it has ten times the strength of zinc salt, others that it is about equivalent to it. OUPKUM-OOPPEE. (On.) U.S. Copper wire. CUPEI SULPHAS—SULPHATE OP COPPER. U.S. {CuO,S03 + 5H0 — CuSO^ -f- 5HjO.) The sulphate of copper occurs in blue, transparent, slightly efflorescent, rhomboidal prisms, or their fragments. It dissolves in four parts of cold and in two of boiling water, but is insoluble in alcohol. With ammonia its solu- tion precipitates a bluish-white hydrated protoxide of copper, which redissolves when an excess of the alkali is added, fonning a rich deep-blue solution. Physiological Action.—In very dilute solution the sulphate of copper acts locally as a stimulant and mUd astringent; in a more concentrated form it is an irritant; in powder it is a very mild caustic, which is scarcely capable of destroying sound tissue. Taken internally in very small amounts and continuously, it is thought to have a corroborant influence upon the nervous system. Prof Falck {Deutsclies Klinik, xi., 1859) has found that the sul- phate of copper acts upon pigeons, dogs, rabbits, etc., as an irritant neurotic poison, producing great depression of temperature, with progi-essive general paresis ending in death, apparently from failure of respiration. When the copper salt was given hypodermicaUy, vomiting was not produced; although when it was exhibited by the mouth, emesis was very violent and persistent. In doses of five to fifteen grains it acts upon man as an irritating emetic, and in larger amounts is an irritant poison. Therapeutics.—The chief internal use of sulphate of copper is as a mechanical emetic. As it is more irritating than sulphate of zmc, it acts more rapidly and in smaller dose. For the same reason, however, it is not so safe aB the white vitriol, and cannot be repeated so freely when its_ action fails. As a stimulant and astringent it is occasionally admmistered, in pill form, in clrro^nc diarrhoea with ulceration. In small repeated doses xt has been used in vaiious nervous affections with doubtful advantage. The chief value of the so-called ^^lUe stone is as an external application men applied in solid form to ulcers, it destroys flabby ^^f^^^^^ J^ exerts a powerful excitant influence. Its solution acts more feebly, and is ometimes employed as a dressing for indolent ulcers, but more frequently as a rmdant and dteraixt to mucous membranes, as in .ranrdar conjunet.ut. Tox^wor.-Tho symptoms of acute copper-poisoning generally come on$