THE TOXICITY OF BISMUTH

¹ Department of Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh

No satisfactory standardization of dosage can be made from the experiments quoted in the history, for different preparations of bismuth have been used; in some of the experiments the bismuth metal content of the preparation has not been considered and in others the weights of the animals or the dose per unit of weight have not been determined.

Many of the observers agree that large doses, doses multiples of the fatal dose of bismuth, have an irritative action on the nervous system and that death occurs as the result of this action. Moreover, there have been noted disturbances in the circulatory system and, in chronic poisoning, gastrointestinal irritation. But no conclusions can be come to on the relative importance of the various effects noted or on the relation of the size of the dose to these effects. And there is no detailed account of the causes of the symptoms.