590 
Subiodide  of  Bismuth. 
<  Am.  Jour.  Pharru . 
I        Dec,  18S€. 
trated  nitric  acid  on  morphine  salts,  excepting  that  the  color  is  not 
blood  red,  and  instead  of  becoming  lighter,  darkens  for  a  time  to 
purple  and  then  changes  to  deep  red,  but  not  yellow.  The  inexperi- 
enced might  possibly  confuse  asiminine  with  morphine  under  the 
similar  test.  With  sulphuric  acid  it  effervesces,  dissolves,  turns  green- 
ish yellow  slowly,  afterwards  yellowish  red,  then  dark  red,  and  the 
liquid  remains  this  color.  Hydrochloric  acid  does  not  affect  it ;  but 
the  addition  of  a  little  sulphuric  acid  and  a  gentle  heat  produces  a 
purple  color  similar  to  the  morphine  reaction  with  same  reagent. 
Mercuric  chloride  causes  a  precipitate  in  solutions  of  this  salt.  Chlo- 
rine water  does  not  affect  the  alkaloid,  but  the  solution  of  its  muriate 
is  precipitated  white. 
PREPARATION  OF  SUBIODIDE  OF  BISMUTH. 
By  Caswell  Mayo. 
Subiodide  of  bismuth  is  mentioned  by  Gmelin  (Hand-book  of  Chem- 
istry, Watts,  iv.  437)  as  a  powder  which  is  precipitated  when  the 
iodide  of  bismuth  (formed  by  the  fusion  of  the  two  metals)  is  boiled 
with  water.  Its  color  is  given  as  chestnut  brown  by  Berthenot,  as 
red  by  Arppe. 
It  has  recently  been  revived  as  a  topical  application  to  indolent  ul- 
cers, and  can  be  formed  by  triturating  306  parts  of  subnitrate  of  bis- 
muth with  165.6  parts  of  iodide  of  potassium  and  sufficient  dilute  hy- 
drochloric acid  to  form  a  paste.  The  paste  becomes  yellow  and  is  then 
thrown  into  water,  when  the  reaction  is  completed  and  the  amorphous, 
heavy,  adhesive,  brick-red  powder  is  precipitated.  It  is  insoluble  in 
water,  alcohol,  ether  and  chloroform,  and  is  decomposed  by  the  strong- 
mineral  acids  with  liberation  of  iodine,  and  by  strong  alkalies  with 
liberation  of  bismuth  oxide. 
The  formula  is  generally  given  as  BiOI;  I  think  it  probable  that 
it  should  be  BiOIH20,  though  my  experiments  have  not  established 
this  conclusively. 
It  has  been  mentioned  in  several  journals  lately,  but  I  have  not 
seen  elsewhere  any  definite  directions  for  the  manipulation. 
