CHEMICAL LABILITY. 



17 



poisoned by concentrated solutions of neutral ammoniasalts, are 

 easily attacked by hydroxylamin even at dilutions of 1 : io,ooo r) . 



I found, that diatoms are killed within 24 hours by hydroxyl- 

 amin in a dilution of 1 : 100,000 and that in a dilution of 1 : 20,000 

 it is a stronger poison for infusoria than strychnin ! In a dilution 

 of 1 : 15,000 it kills within a few days phaenogamous plants, as 

 was shown by me with young plants of maize and helianthus and 

 by E. Schulze with maize and barley. — Marpman observed later 

 also the poisonous qualities for pathogenic microbes. In short, 

 while ammonia is next to nitrates the most important source 

 of nitrogen for the nutrition of plants, hydroxylamin never can 

 be used for this purpose, being a deadly poison ! — 



In regard to lower animals I observed, that while sal-am- 

 moniac in a dilution of 1 : 10,000 had no noxious effect upon 

 crustaceans (copepodes) the equally diluted solution of hydro- 

 chlorate of hydroxylamin (neutralised with soda) killed them 

 within 3 hours. A solution of 1 : 20,000 killed aquatic snails, 

 worms, and larvae of insects within 36 hours. — Raimundi and 

 Bertoni, Binz, Lcwin studied the poisonous action on the higher 

 animals. 0,05 g. of hydrochlorate of hydroxylamin kills a pigeon 

 in 3 minutes ; o,ig pro Kilo, of a warmblooded animal will pro- 

 duce convulsions. 



When the diamid was discovered by Th Curtius in the year 

 1887, and its remarkable affinities for aldehydes became known, 2) 

 I predicted at once, that this substance must prove a universal 

 poison, a poison for all kinds of living cells. Indeed I observed 

 afterwards that the neutralised sulfate in a dilution of 1 : 10,000 

 kills algae in 1-2 days ; at 1 : 5,000 bacteria ; at 1 : 2,000 infusoria, 

 Crustacea, mollusca and aquatic larvae of insects within 12 hours, 

 while neutral ammoniumsulfate in this dilution produced not 

 the slightest effect whatsoever. I found further, that young plants 

 of Helianthus died within 4 days, and of barley within 2 days, 

 if placed into a solution containing 0,2 p. mille neutralised 

 sulfate of diamid, while the controlplants treated with equal 

 quantities of ammoniumsulfate developed normally. 3 ' 0,5 g. of 



1) O. Loew, Pfli'igers Arch. Vol. 35, p. 515 (1885). 



2) According to Curtius diamid attacks aldehydes even in strong acid solutions, 

 while it combines with ketons only in form of the free base. 



3) O. Loew, Berichte d. D. Chem. Ges. Vol. 23, p. 3204. 



