AM. CAUST. Aqua-ammonia. Spirits of Hartshorn. Wibmer’s “Mat.Medorrhinum and Toxicology “.
COMPARE WITH.
Am.-carb. and mur.
ANTIDOTES.
Dilute Vinegar.
RATIONALE OF ITS ACTION.
When taken by accident, undiluted, or insufficiently diluted, it produces severe inflammation of the mucus membrane of the mouth, fauces, and stomach, and may even vesicate or act corrosively. Much caution is also requisite in applying it to the nostrils, in order to revive fainting persons, or to rouse them from positive syncope. Several instances of severe inflammation of the air passages are on record from this cause, some of which proved fatal.
NERVOUS SYSTEM. Nerves of Motion.
In almost all cases of poisoning with Ammonia and its preparations, convulsions are observed, apparently showing that these substances act specifically upon the spinal marrow. Aqua – ammonia, injected into the veins, or even into the cavity of the pleura or stomach, is apt to cause tetanic stiffness and convulsions. Pereira infers that it acts more upon the grey than upon the white substance of the nerves and brain.
Nervous of Sensation.
It is not known whether this remedy exerts any specific action upon the nerves of sensation, apart from its irritant and croupous-inflammatory action.
VASCULAR SYSTEM. Blood.
The action of Ammonia on the blood has already been discussed when treating of Carbonate of Ammonia.
Heat and Arteries.
The experiments of Blake show that Ammonia, introduced in large doses into the veins, acts by suddenly extinguishing the irritability of the heart. Small doses first lower arterial pressure from debility of the heart action, and then increase aorta from the axillary artery, it causes great increase of arterial pressure, owing to the latter cause; and then arrests the heart, while respiration goes on. Four seconds are sufficient for the Ammonia to pass from the jugular vein into the heart, so as to be discovered there by Muriatic-acid causing white fumes.
Pulse.
Weak, small, frequent.
FEVER.
Profuse perspiration, violent fever., Dry skin, shivering, chilliness, violent thirst. Caustic Ammonia is small doses is said to act as a stimulant, excitant, or calefacient; it produces a sensation of warmth in the mouth, throat, and epigastrium, frequently attended with eructations. A temporary excitement of the vascular system succeeds, but his quickly subsides; the heat of the skin is increased and there is a tendency to sweating, which, if promoted by the use of warm drinks and clothing, passes over into profuse perspiration. When the recession arises from, or is connected with an inflammatory condition of the bronchial membrane, it is inadmissible.
INFLAMMATIONS.
Caustic Ammonia is decidedly homoeopathic to inflammation, especially to the so-called “croupous inflammations” of Rokitansky. Nasal mucous membrane covered with an albuminous coating; uvula covered with a layer of lymph and mucus; posterior surface of epiglottis and entrance of rima-glottis covered with a false membrane and trachea and bronchi covered here and there with layers of pseudo-membrane are among its effects.
SKIN.
When applied to the skin it causes pain, redness, vesication, and more or less destruction of the part, thus acting first as a rubefacient, then as a vesicant, and lastly as a caustic or corrosive agent, and may even cause gangrene. when given internally it is apt to cause perspiration.
MUCOUS MEMBRANES.
The ammoniacal remedies have always been supposed to exert a specific action upon the mucous membranes. The great peculiarity of its action is the tendency to the formation of croupous inflammations and exudations which it is apt to cause.
CLINICAL REMARKS.
The preparations of Ammonia would seem homoeopathic to true croupous inflammations of the nostrils, throat, larynx, trachea, oesophagus, and of the large and capillary air-tubes. I have already drawn attention to this fact in the Homoeopathic
Examiner, Vol. I., p. 187, 1846. It is also homoeopathic to, convulsions and tetanus. J.C.P.
ANTIDOTES.
The vegetable acids, such as Lemon-juice, Vinegar,., When it has been inhaled, the vapors of Muriatic -acid may be very cautiously employed. J.C.P.
Cullen thought it the best anti-spasmodic known; he gave it in doses of four to six drops; in a wineglassful of plain or orange- flower water. Pescay recommended it in tetanus. Hope recommends it in epilepsy; he says, if taken at the first warning of an attack, it seldom fails to arrest it. Pereira quotes a case in his own practice, and another in that of Pinel, in which the inhalation of ammoniacal vapor, immediately after the first warning of an attack of epilepsy, apparently averted its occurrence. He found it particularly useful in hysterical epilepsy, and in that form of the disease which Sauvages called lypothymia, in which the patient is described as dying away. Ducros and other French physicians have found the liquor Ammoniae, applied with a camel’s hair brush to the palate and gums, so as to cause a profuse discharge of tears and saliva, rapidly cures some obstinate cases of tic-douleureux. It was also found productive of great benefit in the same cases, if given internally. Externally, applied as a counter-irritant, it also affords striking relief.
The preparations of Ammonia are more homoeopathic to scurvy and haemorrhages from deficiency of fibrin in the blood than to any other forms of blood-diseases. In scrofula, the late Dr. Armstrong found that cases attended with much debility, a languid state of the circulation, and deficient cutaneous secretions, were much benefited by Ammonia. In typhus fever, small-pox, scarlet-fever, and other septic disorders, an unusually large quantity of Ammonia is developed or liberated in the blood.
In the bites of venomous snakes and insects, in which the poison is absorbed into the blood. Ammonia has long been used. It is certainly a powerful nervine stimulant in these cases, and is more efficacious than Brandy or any other stimulant. It may be given internally, in doses of ten or twenty minims, in water or wine, every half-hour or oftener, if the urgency of the symptoms require it. Externally, it should to rubbed into and about the bitten part. The patient should not be allowed to lie down or go to sleep; he should be kept moving about, and his fears allayed in every possible way. In bites of scorpions, centipedes, mosquitoes, and other venomous insects, a liniment composed of equal parts of Ammon-caust., Olive-oil, and Opium, well rubbed over the bitten part affords great relief. A few drops of the Ammonium may also be given internally.
Although in full quantities, it extinguishes the irritability of the heart, still, Wood says, in consequence of the energy, and at the same time the brevity of its stimulant action, it is admirably adapted to all those cases of sudden depression or collapse which if the patient survive, must be followed by febrile reaction, if not acute inflammation. The wants of any special influence on the brain, adapts it peculiarly to those in which the reaction will be likely to attended with inflammation or great vascular excitement of that organ. Instances of the kind are not unfrequently presented in the cold stage of febrile diseases, the collapse of concussion of the brain, and the prostration of any sudden shock.
Gerard, of Lyons, has used it with success as a sudorific in grave fevers, also in those arising from atmospheric influences, i.e., in catarrhal-rheumatic fevers. Pungent and Brachet have used it with astonishing success in catarrhal-rheumatic fevers, when the chill was well marked. Wood says, in all fevers assuming in their progress a low form, requiring stimulation, this is one of the diffusible stimulants which may be had recourse to. In typhus and enteric fevers, in the various exanthemata assuming a typhoid form, especially scarlatina, small-pox, and malignant erysipelas, and even in the phlegmasia, when attended with the same state of the system, it may be used; yet, in all these diseases, the quantity of Ammonia in the blood is increased. Its tendency to produce softness of moisture of the skin adds to its usefulness; and sometimes, when the breath and exhalations from the patients have a sour smell, as they are apt to have in low fevers, its property of neutralizing acid may be considered a peculiar recommendation. We should not have been surprised to see Wood recommending it when the breath was ammoniacal. Still he has doubtless often applied it unwittingly when that was the case, supposing the breath to be sour or musty.
In continued fevers, which have existed for some time, and where all violent action has subsided, and the brain does not appear much disordered, it is occasionally of great service. Its diaphoretic action may be improved by diluents and warm clothing. In intermittent fever it is sometimes of advantages, given during the cold stage, to hasten its substance. In the exanthemata, when the eruption had receded from the skin, and the extremities are cold, it is sometimes of great benefit, on account of its stimulant and diaphoretic properties. When the recession arises from, or it connected with an inflammatory condition of the bronchial membrane, it is inadmissible.
