ADMINISTRATION OF BISMUTH IN THE SOLUBLE FORM. 
303 
partly because having been fortunate several years ago in discovering this ele¬ 
gant method of holding bismuth in permanent solution, he was anxious to reap 
some measure of reward in the credit which would attach to so distinct an im¬ 
provement as he believed this preparation to be; and partly also because, as the 
article can only exist in the form of solution, it was convenient that the profes¬ 
sion should be invited to prescribe a medicine of one definite strength. In 
answer to the author’s suggestion that it should be made three times as strong 
as he (Mr. Schacht) had been accustomed to make it, he would observe that 
the quantity indicated as a dose—one drachm—was easy both to remember and 
to dispense, and he had abundance of evidence to prove that in such doses it 
was efficient, in many cases succeeding where full doses of from five to twenty 
grains of the trisnitrate had failed. He claimed the credit, such as it was, of 
having been the first to prepare and introduce to the profession a permanently 
fluid form of bismuth ; and as his preparation had been a good deal employed 
during the last five or six years, it would be a great pity to alter its strength. 
Dr. Attfield said that the fact of the solubility of oxide of bismuth in 
citrate of ammonia had been observed by Mr. Spiller more than five years ago, 
and published, together with other observations relating to the influence of 
citric acid on chemical reactions, in the Journal of the Chemical Society. To 
Mr. Schacht, however, was no doubt due the practical application of this fact, 
and the production of what was apparently an excellent form of medicine for 
the administration of bismuth. 
Mr. Squire asked Mr. Schacht if any experiments had been made by medical 
men to determine the relative strengths and values of his preparation and the 
subnitrate. 
Mr. Schaciit said several cases had been reported to him by Dr. Martin, the 
senior physician to the Bristol Hospital, and other medical men, in which bene¬ 
fit had resulted from the use of his preparation where the old insoluble form of 
subnitrate had either failed or proved less efficacious, but he could not at the 
moment refer to any experiments made with the special object of determining 
the relative strengths of the two medicines. 
Mr. Haselden was glad to see Mr. Schacht present to speak for himself. 
He (Mr. llaselden) had frequently used his liquor bismuthi, and thought it a 
very elegant preparation. Some persons, on hastily reading the circular that was 
issued with it, might perhaps have concluded that each fluid drachm contained 
more than a grain of the oxide of bismuth, as it purported to represent fifteen or 
twenty grains of the subnitrate, but it was evident from Mr. Schacht’s explana¬ 
tion that this soluble form of bismuth was much more active than the old inso¬ 
luble form, and hence the much smaller dose proved equally, if not more, effica¬ 
cious. 
Dr. Redwood was anxious to say a word or two with reference to the name 
Mr. Schacht had given to his preparation. Now that the composition of liquor 
bismuthi was no longer a secret, he thought it very desirable that a name should 
be given to it indicating what its composition was. He thought the practice of 
introducing new medicines under names that afforded no indication, or a very 
imperfect indication, of what they were, was much to be regretted. Such a 
practice often caused much inconvenience and difficulty to pharmaceutists in 
dispensing, and also deprived medical men of the means of ascribing the effects 
of such medicines to their true causes. He should be glad to know from Mr. 
Schacht whether he had formed any opinion as to the constitution of the com¬ 
pound of bismuth contained in his liquor bismuthi, and whether he had observed, 
as stated by Mr. Tichbourne, that ammonia was evolved when the oxide of bis¬ 
muth was dissolved in the neutral citrate of ammonia. He knew that Mr. 
Schacht was not unaccustomed to speculations and investigations relating to the 
constitution of salts. 
