A STUDY OF THE SIMILARITIES OF SEVERAL REPRESENTATIVE TYPES OF BISMUTH PREPARATIONS USED IN THE THERAPY OF EXPERIMENTAL SYPHILIS

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology, University of Wisconsin, Madison

(1) There exists a striking qualitative and quantitative similarity of toxicities or limits of tolerance as well as of antisyphilitic potencies among the various bismuth preparations when they are administered intravenously. When they are administered intramuscularly, the antisyphilitic action does not differ significantly from that seen on intravenous injections, even though the tolerance by the host for most of the preparations is markedly increased.

(2) The similarity of the M.T.D. and the T. I. of the compounds when administered intravenously, in contrast to their marked differences when given intramuscularly, indicates that the difference in rate of absorption from intramuscular deposits is the chief and most important factor accounting for any variation in behavior which does appear.

(3) From the results obtained in this study and from a survey of reports by others, it is evident that all of the bismuth preparations, by and large, manifest their therapeutic activity as well as toxicity in direct proportion to their elemental bismuth content.

(4) The similarity of the M.C.D. of any preparation of bismuth by either route of administration and the similarity in the toxicity of any of the bismuth preparations when given intravenously suggest that basically all preparations of bismuth ultimately act in a common form rather than the form in which they are injected.

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