CHEMICAL LABILITY. 
T 7 
poisoned by concentrated solutions of neutral ammoniasalts, are 
easily attacked by hydroxylamin even at dilutions of i : io^oo 1 2 ). 
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 i : 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, Lewin 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, Pflügers 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. 
\ 
