164 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  BISMUTH. 
partly  also  because,  as  the  article  can  only  exist  in  the  form  of 
solution,  it  was  convenient  that  the  profession  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  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  ex- 
cellent 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.  Schacht  said  several  cases  had  been  reported  to  him  by 
Dr.  Martin,  the  senior  physician  to  the  Bristol  Hospital  and 
other  men,  in  which  benefit  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.  Haselden)  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 
