QUALITIES. _Form_, a white, inodorous, tasteless powder. CHEMICAL
COMPOSITION. Oxide of Bismuth in combination with some water and a
little nitric acid. SOLUBILITY. It is insoluble in water and dilute
acids, but is dissolved by the concentrated acids, and is again
precipitated by water. The alkalies, Potass and Soda, also dissolve it,
but sparingly; it is more soluble in ammonia. USES. It was formerly
employed as a cosmetic, under the name of _Magistery of Bismuth_, or
that of _Pearl White_;[429] since, however, it becomes black from the
operation of Sulphuretted Hydrogen and its compounds,[430] much
inconvenience attends its application. Its medicinal powers appear to
have been first noticed by Jacobi,[431] but the remedy attracted little
or no attention until the publication of a paper upon the subject by
Odier[432] of Geneva. The diseases in which its powers as a tonic have
been more particularly displayed, are Gastrodynia, Pyrosis, and
Dyspepsia attended with cholic. Dr. Marcet in a paper read in 1801
before the Medico-chirurgical Society of London, says, “I have had
frequent opportunities of trying the oxide of Bismuth in spasmodic
affections of the stomach in Guy’s Hospital, and those trials have fully
confirmed the opinion which I formerly gave of the utility of this
medicine.” The practitioner will receive a further confirmation of its
value by referring to Dr. Bradsley’s Medical Reports: and Dr. Yeats has
published in the Royal Institution Journal[433] a striking case
illustrative of its efficacy.[434] Dose, gr. v to xv, in the form of
pills.