A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the British pharmacopoeia, and many other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle and Frederick W. Headland.

  • Royle, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1798-1858.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the British pharmacopoeia, and many other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle and Frederick W. Headland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    183/792 (page 171)
    CUPRUM. give but a very feeble precipitate with chloride of barium. Let them now be again drained, and dried on filtering paper at ordinary temperatures. The soluble Sulphate of Soda is left in the mother liquor, and removed by washing. That no cryst. of this may be obtained, the liquid is not to be evaporated beyond fgiv. The heat is kept fow to prevent the decomposition of the Valerianic acid. The D. P., from which the formula is taken, prescribed that the crystals should be dried at a heat not exceeding 100*^. 'Ihe B. P. allows only the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere. Tests. The Sulphate or Acetate of Zinc, to which Oil of Valerian has been added, are frequently substituted. They may be detected by their solubility, by the solution having on its sm-face a fihn of oil, and the Sulphate by Ba CI. When such a spurious specimen is heated with an acid, little or no Valerianic' can be separated by distillation. Another adulteration, with Butyrate of Zinc, which much resembles the Valerianate, is less easily discovered. The insolubility of the Butyrate of Copper, the Valerianate being comparatively soluble, furnishes a test. It gives when heated with dilute Sulphuric acid a distillate, which, when mixed with the solution of acetate of copper, does not immediately affect the transparency of the fluid, but fbrmS after a little time oily drops, which gradually pass into a bluish-white crystalline deposit. (B.) The distillate is Valerianic' acid, with also any Butyric acid that may be present. With the solution of the acetate (1 in 10) the Butyric acid gives at once a green precip., the Valerianic' behaves as stated. Zinc may be recognised by its tests. Action. Uses. A tonic and antispasmodic in Hysteria and Epilepsy. A gr. j.—iij. in pills. It is recommended by some as combining the actions of Zinc and Valerian. Cuprum (B. Appendix). Copper. Venus of the Ancients. F. Cuivre. G. Kupfer. Copper was, with Gold and Silver, one of the most anciently known of the metals. It is abundantly diffused in nature, being found native as an Oxide, a Sulphuret, and as a Sulphate, Carbonate, Arseniate, and Phosphate. Copper (Cu-31-75) is a reddish-coloured metal, of a disagreeable smell when rubbed, and of an unpleasant taste. Sp. Gr. 8'85 to 8*95 ; very ductile and malleable, and possessed of considerable tenacity. It melts at 1996^^ (Daniell). Its crystals, obtained on the cooling of the fused metal, are rhomboidal, but those of native Copper are cubes or octohedrons. It oxidises slowly in the atmosphere, becoming covered with a green crust of Subcarbonate of Copper. It decomposes water only at a bright red heat. Its oxygenation is much promoted by many acids, as the Nitric, and caused even by the weaker acids when exposed to the air, also by alkaline and fatty substances. There are two Oxides of Copper. One, a Suboxide or Dinoxide (2 Cu, 0), also called Red Oxide of Copper, is found native in octohedral crystals; when hydrated, it is of a lively yellow colour. The Protoxide (Cu 0^