Magical “cholestone”
Legend has it that in the ancient times, Xinzhou (now in the area of Xinzhou District, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province) accidentally lost the key while walking on the water’s edge. The next day, when looking for it, it was discovered that the iron key in the water turned into a copper key. Perhaps the legend has exaggerated suspicions, but it also has certain scientific nature.
The method of smelting copper with cholesteric has been the earliest hydrometallurgical technology in the world. We call the copper produced by this method “bronze”. Li Xinchuan, a scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote in the book “The ruling of the Chaoyang in the Day of Jianyan”: “There are people who have gallstones in the pits, covered with iron as tablets, and immersed in biliary water. After tens of days, they become copper.” In 1987, Chinese scholar Li Zhong Jun et al. published a paper titled “On the Relationship between High Yield and Rainfall in the Song Dynasty”. The authors examined the reasons for the high yield of Jiangxi Dexing Bronze in the Song Dynasty, which was actually related to the Song Dynasty (1094 ~ 1275). During the year of the year, there is a direct relationship between the annual rainfall in Jiangxi. Why is this? It turns out that the method of smelting copper with cholesteric is very simple. The iron is placed in a solution containing cholesteric, and the copper ions are replaced. The precipitated copper is copper, the rainfall is large, and the solution containing cholesteric naturally Many, this method of copper can not only be used locally, but also saves large fuel, eliminating the need for blasting, heating, smelting and other equipment, simple operation and low cost. The ancients used this method to make a large number of copper products, especially in the Song Dynasty. Due to the need of coinage, the gallstones were extremely prosperous. According to statistics, in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the production of bile copper has reached 1 million tons.
However, when a new science and technology emerges, there will always be some doubts. In “History of Song Dynasty”, the three division judges Xu Shen accepted the idea of others to make copper into copper, which used copper to dip iron to produce copper, but used it to cast coins, but Minister Sun Zude thought it was a kind of “Pseudo-copper”, Xu Shen is also considered a liar. Shen Kuo, a scientist from the Northern Song Dynasty, mentioned in the “Meng Xi Bi Tan”: “The Xinshan County has a bitter spring, and the flow is thought to be awkward. If it is watery, it will become timid, and when it is cooked, it will become copper. It is also turned into copper. The water can be copper, and the change of the matter is unpredictable. According to the “Yellow Emperor Sutra”, there are ‘days five lines, five lines of earth. The earth is wet in the sky, the earth can produce gold stones, and the wet can also produce gold stones’. This is also the test.” The water can produce copper, this magical phenomenon surprised Shen Kuo. However, Shen Kuo explained this phenomenon with the yin and yang five elements theory, which is unscientific, but it is also an understanding error caused by the development of productivity and scientific level at that time.
Modern science has shown that bile copper is actually a chemical displacement reaction, that is, copper sulfate solution reacts with iron to form ferrous sulfate and metallic copper. For such experiments, we have already learned it in middle school chemistry.
Toxic attack
The cholestasis used in medicine is almost all artificially produced copper sulphate crystals. Since the “Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic”, all medical records have recorded timid acidity and coldness, and have the effects of vomiting and phlegm. The difference with other Chinese medicines is that the treatment of cholestasis is based on the method of poisoning.
Everyone commonly uses the idiom “five poisons” to describe some people doing bad things, but what are the five “poisons” in the original intention? Modern people think that it is “eating, drinking, swearing, gambling, pumping” or “pit, monk, abduction, deception, stealing” five extreme bad habits, but in the past folklore, it is considered “green snake, “Centipede, scorpion, spider, toad”, another way is that five kinds of medicinal drugs: stone gallbladder (ie, timid), dansha (that is, cinnabar), realgar, citrus (ie magnet) and A kind of (sound “què” ) Stone (that is, poisonous sand), in which timid is the first of the five poisons. Because cholestasis itself has strong toxicity, after the patient is taken into the body, a certain amount of copper will be dissolved under the action of acidic medium, which has a certain stimulating effect on the sensory nerve of the stomach wall, and then further causes vomiting, so the gallbladder It is used to treat food poisoning, epilepsy, and obstruction of the throat.
The story of “Zhuge Liang Qiu Meng Meng” in “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is very exciting. It is said that once Meng was released by Zhuge Liang and fled to the Bald Cave, the bald dragon king here wanted to use “dumb spring, soft spring, black spring, Destroy the spring” four poisonous springs to eliminate the army. General Wang Ping, the leader of the army, led hundreds of sergeants to explore the road. Because of the hot weather, the soldiers were dry and misunderstood the water of the “dumb spring”. As a result, no one could speak, the pain was unbearable, if not In the mountains, the high-ranking people pointed out that they would get medicines. I am afraid that these poisoned soldiers will die. What is going on with this “dumb spring”? Later studies have found that “dumb springs” do exist. They are located in Baoshan City, Yunnan Province. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people set up stone monuments at the edge of the spring, suggesting that pedestrians do not drink this water. It must have been that Mr. Luo Guanzhong heard about such a thing, so he portrayed it in the novel. According to the modern scientist’s inference, the so-called “dumb spring” should be a kind of spring water containing high copper sulfate. Because Yunnan copper mine is rich in resources, it has been mined since ancient times. The spring water has become a poisonous copper sulfate solution. of.
Copper sulphate is very toxic, and the amount of cholestasis taken safely is 0.5 to 1 g each time. If it exceeds 10 grams, it can cause death. There are cases in which a 39-year-old man developed vomiting, weakness in the limbs, and died in 3 hours after taking the biliary prescription three times. After forensic identification, the biliary prescription contains biliary sputum, white peony and other ingredients, but the main component of death is biliary sputum. The biliary dose of the deceased single or cumulative 3 times before birth is far more than that of adults. The lethal dose is 10g.