AM.CARB. Carbonate of Ammonia. Sub-carbonate of Ammonia. Volatile Salts. Salts of Hartshorn. Baker’s Salt. See Hahnemann’s “Chronic Diseases,” Vol. II. Duration of action: forty days in some chronic affections.
COMPARE WITH
Am-mur., Arnica, Arsenicum, Belladonna, Bryonia, China, Ferrum, Graphites, Hepar, Kali., Lachesis, Lauroc., Lycopodium, Mang., Nux-v., Phosph., Pulsatilla, Rhus., Silicea, Staphysagria, Sulphur
ANTIDOTES
Arnica, Camph., Hepar
RATIONALE OF ITS ACTION
Carbonate of Ammonia is formed during the putrefaction or destructive distillation of these organic substances which contain nitrogen. The anhydrous neutral carbonate can only be obtained by bringing together dry carbonic-acid and ammoniacal gases.
It is supposed to prevent the coagulation of the blood, and retain it in a liquid state. If this be true, it must prove a valuable remedy in those maladies which are accompanied by a crude condition of the blood and an unusual tendency to decomposition of this fluid. Theoretically, we should commend it in typhus, malignant scarlatina malignant erysipelas, and disease of a similar character. It is readily absorbed into the blood, and appears to act specifically upon the nervous system, especially upon the vertebral column. Its action is nearly the same when injected into the veins. In the first place, its effects are chiefly manifested upon the ganglionic and true spinal systems; then we observe its effects upon the circulation, respiration, secretions, and the muscular fibres. It is not, like Opium and alcoholic stimulants, a diffusible stimulant, and its effects are more transient than these substances. According to Billing, it is a “local stimulant, and as such excites momentarily the action of the heart, through the solar plexus. It immediately unites with animal acids, and then circulates, or is diffused, not as a diffusible stimulant, but as a saline sedative. It therefore performs the double office of a temporary local stimulant to the stomach and heart, and a sedative to inflamed capillaries elsewhere.” Carbonate of Ammonia is a stimulant, excitant, diaphoretic, powerful ant-acid, and anti- spasmodic; in large doses, emetic; and under some circumstances, expectorant.
Injected into the veins it causes convulsions. Internally it has caused gastric inflammation with tetanic convulsions, the body ultimately becoming curved, with the head bent backwards. (Opisthotonos). Wibmer found one and one-half grains to cause no particular effect upon himself; three grains increased the pulse from 68 to 72, with throbbing headache; six to twelve grains usually, but not constantly, caused increased frequency of pulse, with disorder of brain, manifested by pain, heaviness, throbbing, secretion of bronchial mucus, was extra-ordinary. Pereira gave fifteen grains, three times a day for two months, with no other effect than suspending epileptic fits during this time.
Huxham has detailed a remarkable case, illustrative of the ill effects resulting from the long-continued use of it. A gentleman had so habituated himself to the use of vast quantities of it that at length he could eat it in a very astonishing manner, as other people eat sugar or carraway seeds. The consequence was, he brought on hectic fever; vast haemorrhages from the intestines, nose, and gums; every one of his teeth dropped out, and he could in consequence eat nothing solid, he wasted vastly in flesh, and his muscles became as soft and flabby as those of a new-born infant, he broke out all over his body in pustules; his urine was always excessively high-colored, turbid, and very fetid; he finally died in the highest degree of marasmus.
Vogt assumes that it causes a more active metamorphosis and liquefaction in the vegetative organs, viz.: increased secretion from the skin; more ready loosening of mucus from the bronchi; more profuse secretion of urine, with simultaneous absorption of lymphatic fluids from internal parts; increase and hastening of the menses; increased flow of bile; but the most marked of all is its action on the skin; so that the ammoniac remedies have always been considered as excellent diaphoretica; and next in its action upon the lymphatic, vascular, and glandular systems, whence it is regarded as a fluidizing, absorption-hastening, and resolvent remedy for the organs of these systems.- J.C.P.
In larger doses it causes stimulation to the point of overheating, whence heat and congestion have generally been regarded as signs of too great irritation from Ammonia; its expanding and dissolving powers then also become evident; excessive and very profuse perspirations set in; also greater secretions of mucus, more profuse flow of urine, and, in general, more hasty and active metamorphoses, with great inclination to excessive expansion and liquefaction. This fluidizing action may become excessive, overbalance the formative power, and cause inclination to solution and decomposition; we see this not only in the profuse secretions which it causes, but in the undermining of all the assimilative processes, viz.: in the destruction of digestion, in the solution of the chyle and blood, the want of contractile power, the diminution of organic cohesion in all parts in short, by the occurrence of a true scorbutic state; yet it is advised in affections of the intestinal mucous membrane, viz.: in gastric fever, in mucous inflammations, and in chronic mucous states with formation of viscid slime, in diarrhoeas, and dysentery.- J.C.P.
GENERAL EFFECTS ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
That the principal action of Ammonia is first manifested upon the ganglionic and true spinal systems is evident from the spasmodic actions which it induces, and from the increased activity of the circulation, respiration, and the secretions. It does not affect the brain like Opium and alcoholic stimulants, but appears to impress specifically the vertebral column. Among the effects of large doses, convulsions have sometimes been observed.
Nerves of Sensation. It produces temporarily increased heat of the skin and a tendency to perspiration. Indeed it exalts momentarily the sensibility of all the organs, especially upon the sentient extremities of the nerves, and upon the capillaries. It causes much itching of the scalp, and of the whole surface of the body. From its stimulating effect upon the nerves and capillaries, it has been often employed in low forms of typhus, scarlatina, and other maladies characterized by depressed nervous and vascular power.
Nerves of Motion. It probably acts more specifically or powerfully upon the nerves of motion than upon those of sensation; it not only causes increased capability for muscular exertion, and a state in which all the nervous functions are executed with greater facility, but all the salts of Ammonia cause convulsions.
Great Sympathetic Nerve. By its specific action upon the solar plexus, it rouses into augmented activity, temporarily, the heart, stomach, and lungs. Under its influence the activity of nearly every organ of the body is for a short time increased. Thus we have an increase of perspiration, of urine, of mucous secretions, and a temporary increase of muscular power.
ON THE VASCULAR SYSTEM Blood. It is speedily absorbed into the blood, and exercises the remarkable power of inducing a more liquid state of this fluid. It counteracts all tendency to crudeness, coagulation, or decomposition of the blood, and on this account affords a reasonable ground for supposing that it may prove useful in some diseases which are accompanied by, or eventuate in blood- deteriorations. According to Billing, “it immediately unites with animal acids, and then circulates, or is diffused, not as a diffusible stimulant, but as a saline sedative. It therefore performs the double operation of a temporary local stimulant to the stomach and heart, and a sedative to inflamed capillaries elsewhere.” In cases of poisoning by this substance, sanguineous effusions are found in various parts of the body.
Physical Effects of Ammonia on the Blood. Hufeland observed that the officinal, and probably all the salts of Ammonia, have the property, to a greater or less degree, of dissolving the blood- corpuscles, even to the nucleus, although slowly, and the protein textures generally. Whether they are thus endowed of themselves, or whether it is in virtue of Ammonia set free from the alkali of the blood, is a question; but, at all events, it has been ascertained that free Ammonia is not essential to these effects. When blood is combined with an ammoniacal salt, it acquires, generally, a brighter red; but this soon passes into a brownish-red hue; it does not coagulate, but forms at best a loose, semi-fluid cruor; the corpuscules begin to disappear, and the whole becomes more limpid. Blood thus decomposed, progressively evolves distinct traces of Ammonia. It is very probable that we may partially explain, upon chemical grounds (solution and disengagement of Ammonia), why large doses of the Ammonia act as poisons, and smaller doses, long continued, induce a scorbutic condition. Yet the same salt, judiciously exhibited, furnishes a valuable stimulant to the secretory and excretory apparatus.
