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Description

The authors refer to the researches of Andrews, Clark, Neubauer and Vogel, and others on the presence of ammonia as a constant constituent of healthy urine, Neubauer regarding 10.8 grains per diem as the average normal excretion. After numerous experiments, the authors regard this quantity as excessive, and suggest some reasons for this discrepancy. The method adopted by the authors is as follows: the freshly passed urine is to be first diluted with a given bulk of distilled water, sufficient to destroy all apparent colour, a known quantity of the urine being taken in each case. To these is to be added an excess of Nessler’s solution, and then compared with the tint-depth produced by known quantities of ammonia in a similar bulk of liquid treated with the same solution. The trace of ammonia in the water itself must be always allowed for. The external temperature in the observations was always about 62°.

Subject: Medicine / Sanitary chemistry / Pathology

Received 16 April 1872. Read 30 May 1872. Communicated by Thomas Blizzard Curling.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 20 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On ammonia in the urine in health and disease'.

Reference number
AP/54/14
Earliest possible date
1872
Physical description
Ink on paper
Page extent
23 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator names

Charles Meymott Tidy

William Bathurst Woodman

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Citation

Charles Meymott Tidy, William Bathurst Woodman, Unpublished paper, 'On ammonia in the urine in health and disease' by C [Charles] Meymott Tidy and W Bathurst Woodman, 1872, AP/54/14, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_54_14/unpublished-paper-on-ammonia-in-the-urine-in-health-and-disease-by-c-charles-meymott-tidy-and-w-bathurst-woodman, accessed on 13 July 2025

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  • Archived Papers

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

    Dates: 1768 - 1989

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