On the Physiological Action of 

 Amidosuiphonic Acid. 



BY 



N. Maeno, Nogakushi. 



Amidosuiphonic acid has been subjected to extended chemic- 

 al investigations by Dr. Edward Divers, Professor in the Imperial 

 University of Japan, and it was he who proposed to test whether 

 this substance would prove just as good a source of nitrogen, for 

 plants as the ammonium salts or whether they would be noxious i 



Dr. Loew then made some experiments which showed that, 

 while bacteria and mould fungi could utilise the sodium and 

 calcium salts of this acid as soures of nitrogen, and algae are not 

 noxiously affected even by i per cent solutions of these two salts, 

 higher plants, on the contrary, arc noxiously affected by them. 

 As this fact was so contrary to expectation, a larger series of ex- 

 periments appeared desirable, to decide whether such an action 

 w ould generally take place in different groups of phanerogams. 



I therefore made experiments not only with entire plants and 

 young branches but also with isolated leaves and with the seeds 

 of various species. It is well known that ammonium salts in a 

 certain concentration act noxiously upon plants as well as upon 

 animals, and that this poisonous nature either decreases or in- 

 creases in intensity when we substitute one hydrogen atom with 

 other groups ; thus, hydroxylamine and diamidogen are more 

 poisonous than ammonia, while on the other hand amido-acetic 

 acid or taurin are not poisonous : 



Nencki has found that carbamic acid exerts a poisonous effect 

 upon warm-blooded animals, which is different from the effects of 

 the equivalent amount of ammonia. This proves that hydrolysis 

 into ammonia and carbonic acid is not readily accomplished by 



NH 3 



NH 2 — NH 2 1 

 NH 2 -OH J 

 NH a -CH 3 -COOH 



Weak poison. 

 Strong poisons. 



