AMMONIA IN THE HUMAN BODY. 
403 
At 11** 50“ p.M. 19 ounces; still evidence of nitric acid with the starch test. 
(11.) At 12** 20*** A.M. 17 ounces. No evidence of nitric acid ; and for the five next 
days the total quantity of urine passed was collected and examined, and each day 
the slightest evidence of nitric acid was obtained by the starch test. The examination 
was continued for the four next days ; each day the whole quantity passed was 
evaporated and distilled, but not a trace of nitric acid could be detected. 
Thus seven days after the carbonate of ammonia was omitted still traces of nitric 
acid could be detected in the urine, if large quantities were evaporated and examined. 
In order to be more certain regarding the effect of single doses of carbonate of 
ammonia, the urine of two children, the one aged seven, the other six, was examined. 
The total quantity passed by both in the day was 40 ounces. It was evaporated and 
examined, but no nitric acid could be detected by the indigo or starch tests. 
(12.) The child aged seven took 5 grs. of carbonate of ammonia at 11 a.m. The 
urine passed duringthe evening and the following morning was in quantity 13 ounces. 
It was acid, and gave no evidence of nitric acid. 
The same child took rather less than 10 grs. of carbonate of ammonia. 
(13.) At 8 A.M. the urine made during the day up to the following morning, in 
quantity 16 ounces, contained a trace only of nitric acid by the starch test. 
(14.) The other child, aged six, took rather less than 10 grs. of carbonate of am- 
monia. 
At 8 A.M. the urine first passed after this dose was lost by an accident. The 
water passed from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., in quantity 10 ounces, gave no trace of nitric 
acid. 
(15.) The experiment was repeated, 10 grs. of carbonate of ammonia were taken 
at 8 A.M. 
At 6 P.M. about 10 ounces of urine gavo nitric acid with the indigo test and with 
the starch test. 
The water from 6 p.m. to the next day at 1 p.m. was lost, but in the water passed 
during the afternoon and night of the next day no nitric acid could be detected. 
(16.) A patient in St. George’s Hospital was given 7 gi’S. of carbonate of ammonia 
every four hours for rheumatism, after he had taken smaller quantities for three days 
previously. Twenty-four ounces of urine evaporated gave distinct evidence of nitric 
acid by the indigo and starch tests. 
Experiments with Liquor Ammonice. 
(17.) A patient was given for ten days small quantities of Liquor Ammonise, in all 
about half a drachm of the Pharmacopoeia liquid ; twelve ounces of urine evaporated 
gave evidence of nitric acid with the starch test, but none with the indigo. 
Having thus satisfied myself that when carbonate of ammonia was taken small 
quantities of nitric acid passed off in the urine, I tried whether tartrate of ammonia 
would give the same result. 
