Copper and health.

Abstract

Copper derives its name from cuprum, an al tered version of cypr ium, which in turn is the abbrevia t ion of aescyprus (the original name of copper in Latin). Aes-cyprum refers to the island of Cyprus where the ancient coppermines were located. Copper was one of the first metals known to man and was p robab ly used between 8000 and 7000 B.C. Egypt ian tombs contained copper utensils dur ing 5000 B.C. (Sayers 1951, Sass-Kortsak 1965). Copper is distr ibuted on the ear th ' s surface everywhere and its tin alloy, bronze, is being used lot four thousand years. T h e salts of copper were emyloyed in Babylon, Assyria and Egypt for therapy of eye diseases a long time ago (Sigerist 1951, Adelstein and Vallee 1961, Arras 1969). However , the presence of copper in living organisms did not become known until about 150 years ago and even then it was wrongly considered as a mere con t am i nant. I t is only in this century that copper has been recognised as an essential constituent of all living things (Adelstein and Vallee 1961, Sass-Kortsak 1965). I t was only in 1928 that the nutr i t ional dependence of animals on copper was proved (Hart et al. 1928, Elvejhem 1935). A very small quant i ty of copper is essential for life and an excess of copper is toxic (Underwood 1962).