THE RATE OF BISMUTH ABSORPTION IN EXPERI- MENTAL ANIMALS FOLLOWING PERORAL ADMINISTRATION

In 1933 Levaditi (1) reported the status of the prevention and therapy of syphilis with bismuth. In his historical r#{233}sum#{233}he called attention to the fact that in 1889 Masucci (2) advised the use of bismuth in the treatment of secondary and tertiary syphilis. Baizer (3) undertook the first experimental tests. His experi-ments, however, which were misinterpreted, discouraged him and his work was discontinued. Ehrlich and Karrer (4) in 1908 again used bismuth with arsenic and antimony with no better results than Baizer. The use of bismuth in the treatment of syphilis really resulted from work at the Institute of Pasteur (5), and Sazerac and Levaditi (6) who published their first work in 1922. Following the experimental work of Levaditi and Sazerac their findings were confirmed clinically by L. Fournier and Guenot (7). The credit is due to L. Fournier for the description of the therapeutic activity of bismuth, the influence it exerts on the reaction of the blood, the mode of elimination,’dosage and types of treatment. Again in 1930 W. F. von Oettingen (8) published his work on the absorption, distribution and excretion of bismuth. All of the preliminary work has definitely established the fact that bismuth given intravenously demonstrates too high a toxicity to be safe for administration in the treatment of syphilis. The recognized method of administration today, is the intramuscular injection of one of the various bismuth compounds. The oral administration of bismuth, however, has also been investigated. Kuerthy (9) reported in 1924 that after large doses of bismuth carbonate given to dogs, bismuth was recovered from the liver