PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF AMIDOSULPHONCI ACID. 493 
amidosulphonate was introduced into the body that no safe con¬ 
clusion as to its poisonous character can be inferred. Nencki had 
observed that 0.6 gram of sodium carbamate per kilo of body 
weight upon injection into the blood of a dog produces tetanical 
convulsions and sometimes death, 0.3 gram per kilo will produce 
somnolence 05 and catalepsy. As in the above first mentioned 
case the relative amount of amidosulphonate was nearly the same, 
it becomes evident that amidosulphonic acid is not so noxious 
to animals as the related carbamic acid. 
To summarise : 
Amidosulphonic acid occupies an exceptional position among 
the poisons : it is neither poisonous to higher or lower animals, 
nor to fungi and algae, but it is poisonous to all kinds of phæno- 
gams. Although no poison for fungi it is not so favourable a 
source of nitrogen for them as ammonium salts. 
o 
(1) Carbamic acid continuously produced in the body, is rapidly transformed into 
urea, nevertheless it may possibly exert some influence upon the causation of the normal 
sleep. Cf. on this point also the interesting publication of Leo Errera , Sur le Mécanisme 
du Sommeil, Bruxelles , 1895. 
