AMMONIA. 
125 
§ 105.] 
may kill as quickly as prussic acid. 'In a case recorded by Christison, 1 
death occurred in four minutes from a large dose, doubtless partly by 
suffocation. As sudden a result is also recorded by Plenk : a man, 
bitten by a rabid dog, took a mouthful of spirits of ammonia, and died 
in four minutes. 
If death does not occur rapidly, there may be other symptoms— 
dependent not upon its merely local action, but upon its more remote 
effects. These mainly consist in an excitation of the brain and spinal 
cord, and, later, convulsive movements deepening into loss of conscious¬ 
ness. It has been noticed that, with great relaxation of the muscular 
system, the patients complain of every movement causing pain. With 
these general symptoms added to the local injury, death may follow 
many days after the swallowing of the fatal dose. 
Death may also occur simply from the local injury done to the 
throat and larynx, and the patient may linger some time. Thus, in a 
case quoted by Taylor, 2 in which none of the poison appears actually to 
have been swallowed, the man died nineteen days after taking the 
poison from inflammation of the throat and larynx. As with the strong 
acids, so with ammonia and the alkalies generally, death may also be 
caused many weeks and even months afterwards from the effects of 
contraction of the gullet, or from the impaired nutrition consequent 
upon the destruction, more or less, of portions of the stomach or 
intestinal canal. 
§ 105. Post-mortem Appearances. —In recent cases there is an 
intense redness of the intestinal canal, from the mouth to the stomach, 
and even beyond, with here and there destruction of the mucous mem¬ 
brane, and even perforation. A wax preparation in the museum of 
University College (No. 2378) shows the effects on the stomach produced 
by swallowing strong ammonia ; it is ashen-gray in colour, and most of 
the mucous membrane is, as it were, dissolved away ; the cardiac end is 
much congested. 
The contents of the stomach are usually coloured with blood ; the 
bronchial tubes and glottis are almost constantly found inflamed—even a 
croup-like (or diphtheritic) condition has been seen. (Edemaof the glottis 
should also be looked for : in one case this alone seems to have accounted 
for death. The blood is of a clear red colour, and fluid. A smell of 
ammonia may be present. 
If a sufficient time has elapsed for secondary effects to take place, then 
there may be other appearances. Thus, in the case of a girl who, falling 
into a fainting fit, was treated with a draught of undiluted spirits of 
ammonia and lived four weeks afterwards, the stomach (preserved in 
St George’s Hospital museum, 436, ser. ix.) is seen to be much dilated 
and covered with cicatrices, and the pylorus is so contracted as hardly to 
1 Christison, p. 167. 2 Principle's of Jurisprudence, i. p. 235. 
