Ammonium Chloride in Gastric Tetany. 393 



unfavorable effects of larger quantities of almond appear to be 

 due to some harmful substance which is not in the integument 

 but in the kernel itself. Since the results with press cake were 

 almost identical with those from feeding the whole nut, it seems 

 unlikely that the sole difficulty was the large amount of fat, 

 though undoubtedly young animals will not thrive with a high 

 amount of fat in the diet. We have repeatedly seen the coats of 

 young rats look as if they had been dipped in water twelve to 

 twenty-four hours after feeding almonds or peanuts. Unfavorable 

 influences in the case of the peanut are also recorded by Daniels 

 and Loughlin 1 and attributed to high fat. 



193 (1940) 



A note on the use of ammonium chloride in gastric tetany. 



By WILLIAM S. McCANN. 



[From the Chemical Division, Medical Clinic, Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital, Baltimore, Md.] 



Studies of the experimental tetany produced by pyloric ob- 

 struction made by MacCallum 2 showed clearly a reduction in 

 plasma chloride and a coincident increase in the CO2 combining 

 power of the blood plasma. A publication of a similar nature 3 

 called attention to this latter feature, but not to the reduction of 

 plasma chloride content. The priority in experiments clearly be- 

 longs to MacCallum. Both reports agree in the interpretation 

 that the primary disturbance is due to a loss of chloride through 

 the gastric secretions. The therapeutic results obtained in ex- 

 perimental animals by replacing chloride ions either by injection 

 of NaCl intravenously, 2 or HC1 into the duodenum, 3 were good. 



More recently attention has been called by Haldane 4 to the 

 effects of administration of ammonium chloride by mouth. This 

 substance when ingested produces an acidosis resulting in lowered 

 CO2 combining power of plasma, and an increased excretion of 

 acid. The most probable explanation is that the ammonia is 



Daniels and Loughlin, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1918, xxxiii, 295-301. 

 8 MacCallum, Lintz, Vermilye, Leggett and Boas, Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 

 1920, xxxi, I. 



* McCann, Wm. S., Journ. Biol. Chem., 1918, xxxv, 553. 

 4 Haldane, J. B. S., Journ. Physiol., 1921, lv, 265. 



