178 
So-called  Bismuth  Breath. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(      April,  1884. 
diarrhoea,  only  two  doses  were  taken.  There  was  not  the  slightest 
garlic-like  odor  perceptible  in  the  breath. 
Tellurium  is  comparatively  rare,  and  is  contained  in  many  of  the 
ores  of  bismuth.  The  mineral  tetradymite  contains  as  much  as  49*79 
per  cent.,  Wehrlite,  29*74  per  cent.,  and  Joseite,  15*93  per  cent,  of  the 
element.  In  a  sample  of  metallic  bismuth  from  Bolivia,  Schneider1 
found  0*14  per  cent,  of  tellurium.  Brownen2  found  tellurium  in  the 
commercial  bismuth  oxynitrate,  but  it  was  not  present  in  large  quan- 
tity. On  account  of  difficulties  in  its  separation  from  bismuth,  it  often 
occurs  as  an  impurity  in  the  commercial  bismuth  oxynitrate,  yet  in 
most  cases  the  quantity  present  is  very  minute.  If  more  care  were 
used  in  the  preparation  of  the  commercial  oxynitrate,  less  would  be 
heard  of  the  so-called  bismuth  breath.  Repeated  precipitation  and 
washing  will  entirely  remove  the  obnoxious  element. 
As  early  as  1824  the  odor  produced  by  the  ingestion  of  tellurium 
compounds  was  noticed  by  Gmelin. 
In  1853  Hansen3  investigated  the  cause  of  the  production  of  the 
odor.  This  investigator  experimented  upon  himself  and  a  friend,  and 
upon  dogs,  with  potassium  tellurite.  This  salt,  in  doses  of  0*030  to 
0'080  gin.,  taken  by  himself  an  hour  before  each  meal,  gave  the  garlic- 
like breath  within  a  few  minutes  after  the  first  dose,  and  this  odor  soon 
became  so  strong  that  he  had  to  seclude  himself  from  society.  He 
continued  the  doses  during  seven  days,  his  friend  continued  the  doses 
for  two  clays  with  similar  effect,  and  noticed  the  odor  in  his  breath  for 
eight  days  afterward. 
It  is  also  stated  that  Wohler,  when  investigating  the  volatile  tellu- 
ride  of  ethyl,  noticed  this  same  odor  in  his  breath,  and  one  night,  when 
perspiring  freely,  the  odor  of  the  perspiration  was  almost  unbearable. 
In  the  experiments  on  dogs  the  garlic-like  breath  was  perceptible  after 
one  minute.  Hansen  quotes  Gmelin  as  having  in  1824  given  tellurous 
acid  to  a  dog  and  a  rabbit.  The  rabbit  only  was  killed,  and  on  dis- 
section gave  off  a  garlic-like  odor. 
Sir  J.  Simpson4  records  a  case  in  which  a  divinity  student  inadvert- 
ently swallowed  a  dose  of  tellurium,  which  was  followed  by  the  evolu- 
1  Jour.  f.  Prakt.  Chem. 
2  Phar.  Jour.  Trans.,  Oct.  16th,  1875;  Amer.  Jour.  Phar.,  1876,  p.  133. 
;  Liebig's  Annalen,  lxxxvi,  p.  208. 
4  Blyth  Manual  of  Chemistry,  Lon.,  1879. 
