Diffusion of Copper in the Animal Kingdom

Abstract

THE fact of the normal presence of minute quantities of copper in various members of the animal kingdom has been noticed by several chemists within the past twenty-five years. Kingzett states that he has invariably found it to be a constituent of the human brain, while Odling and Dupré, and Bergeron and Hôlé have determined analytically the average amount of copper present in the liver and kidneys of human beings and domestic animals. In the latter case the average percentage of chopper found was about 35 miliionths. Some two years since Clpez examined the blood of a deer, and found it to contain 6 miliionths of copper. The most interesting instance of the occurrence of copper in the animal creation is, however, that communicated by Prof. Church to the Royal Society in 1869. At this time he was engaged in the investigation of a peculiar, soluble, red colouring matter present in the wings of the Turaco, a bird from the West Coast of Africa. A thorough study of this pigment showed it to contain 5.8 per cent, of copper, and Prof. Church established for it the formula C₅₀H₅₆O₁₉N Cu. Led to seek the source of this strange factor in the animal economy of the Turaco, he succeeded in detecting copper in the fruit of the Musa sapientmn, which forms the chief article of the bird's diet.