564 
Bismuth  Salicylate. 
/Am. Jour.  Phju-m. 
1      Nov.,  1883. 
last  few  years,  that  the  reproach  mentioned  in  first  speaking  of  the 
alkaloids  as  a  class,  that  almost  nothing  was  known  of  their  constitu- 
tion, will  not  long  remain,  and  that  as  their  molecular  structure  is  laid 
bare  in  these  studies  now  being  made,  keen-sighted  chemists  will  effect 
their  artificial  formation.  When  these  most  valuable  compounds  can 
be  made  by  exact  methods,  in  a  state  of  entire  purity,  and  at  a  cost 
much  below  that  paid  for  the  present  extraction  of  them  from  rela- 
tively rare  plants,  organic  chemistry  will  have  placed  all  of  us  under 
obligations  as  great  as  those  owing  any  branch  of  science,  no  matter 
how  practical  we  call  it. 
BISMUTH  SALICYLATE. 
By  L.  Wolff,  M.D. 
[Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  October  16, 1883.] 
In  a  recent  number  of  the  '^American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  men- 
tion was  made  of  this  article  as  a  new  remedial  substance,  along  with 
an  interesting  account  of  its  use  and  some  of  its  properties.  The 
"  New  Remedies,"  as  well,  had  notes  upon  the  subject  in  both  the 
September  and  October  numbers,  giving  therein,  also,  directions  for  its 
preparation,  which,  however,  are  not  sufficient  to  obtain  a  pure  salic;^- 
late,  but  only  a  mixture  of  the  subnitrate  and  salicylate  thereof. 
Bismuth  is  well  known  to  exist  in  combinations  both  as  bismuthous 
and  bismuthyl  salts,  the  former  on  addition  of  water  changing  into  the 
latter  group.  Weaker  organic  acids,  however,  will  not  enter  into  com- 
bination directly  with  so-called  metallic  bismuth,  and  we  have  to 
depend,  therefore,  for  its  preparation  on  double  decomposition  with 
other  salicylates  the  bases  of  which  have  greater  affinity  for  the  acid 
radical  of  the  bismuthous  salt.  The  bismuthous  salts  being  precipi- 
tated from  their  acid  solutions  by  water,  would  in  such  decompositions 
give  rise  to  the  precipitation  of  considerable  bismuthyl  salts  in  addition 
to  the  salicylate  so  formed.  Thus,  as  proposed  in  the  September  num- 
ber of  "  New  Remedies,"  if  an  acid  solution  of  bismuth  nitrate  be 
employed,  a  mixture  of  bismuthyl  nitrate  and  salicylate  with  salicylic 
acid  would  inevitably  result.  If,  as  proposed  in  the  same  journal  of 
October,  an  acid  bismuthous  chloride  solution  were  used,  a  similar 
result  with  bismuthyl  chloride  would  ensue.  As  bismuthyl  carbonate 
cannot  be  decomposed  by  salicylic  acid,  a  direct  salicylate  is  thus 
impossible,  though  bismuth  teroxide,  if  freshly  prepared  from  bismu- 
