124 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ IO 4 . 
most plants within an hour, and it is indifferent whether the whole plant 
is watered with this solution, or whether it is applied only to the leaves. 
If, after this watering of the plant- with ammonic carbonate water, the 
injurious salt is washed out as far as possible by distilled water, or by a 
weakly acidulated fluid, then the plant may recover, after having shed 
more or less of its leaves. These facts sufficiently explain the injurious 
effects noticed when urine is applied direct to plants, for urine in a very 
short time becomes essentially a solution of ammonic carbonate. 
§ 104. Action on Human Beings and Animal Life.— The violence 
of the action of caustic solutions of ammonia almost entirely depends on 
the state of concentration. 
The local action of the strong solution appears to be mainly the 
extraction of water and the saponifying of fat, making a soluble soap. 
On delicate tissues it has, therefore, a destructive action ; but S. Samuel 1 
has shown that ammonia, when applied to the unbroken epidermis, does 
not have the same intense action as potash or soda, nor does it coagulate 
albumen. Blood, whether exposed to ammonia gas or mixed with solu¬ 
tion of ammonia, becomes immediately dark red ; then, later, through 
destruction of the blood corpuscles, very dark, even black ; lastly, a dirty 
brown-red. The oxygen is expelled, the haemoglobin destroyed, and the 
blood corpuscles dissolved. 
The albumen of the blood is changed to alkali-albuminate, and the 
blood itself will not coagulate. A more or less fluid condition of the 
blood has always been noticed in the bodies of those poisoned by 
ammonia. 
Blood exposed to ammonia, when viewed by the spectroscope, shows 
the spectra of alkaline hsematin, a weak absorption band, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of D ; but if the blood has been acted on for some time by 
ammonia, then all absorption bands vanish. These spectra, however, are 
not peculiar to ammonia, the action of caustic potash or soda being 
similar. The muscles are excited by ammonia, the functions of the 
nerves are destroyed. 
When a solution of strong ammonia is swallowed, there are two main 
effects—(1) the action of the ammonia itself on the tissues it comes into 
contact with, and (2) the effects of the vapour on the air-passages. 
There are, therefore, immediate irritation, redness, and swelling of the 
tongue and pharynx, a burning pain reaching from the mouth to the 
stomach, with vomiting, and, it may be, nervous symptoms. The saliva 
is notably increased. In a case reported by Fonssagrives, 2 no less than 
3 litres were expelled in the twenty-four hours. Often the glands 
under the jaw and the lymphatics of the neck are swollen. 
Doses of from 5 to 30 grammes of the strong solution of ammonia 
1 Virchow’s Archiv f. path. Anat., Bd. li. Hft. 1 u. 2, S. 41, etc., 1870. 
2 U Union Medicale, 1857, No. 13, p. 49, No. 22, p. 90. 
