Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AM-MO'NI-AC, or AM-MO'NI-AC-GUM, n. [See Ammonia.]

A gum resin, from Africa and the East, brought in large masses, composed of tears, internally white and externally yellow; an exudation from an umbelliferous plant, the Dorema ammoniacum. It has a fetid smell, and a nauseous sweet taste, followed by a bitter one. It is inflammable, soluble in water and spirit of wine, and is used in medicine as a deobstruent and resolvent. – Encyc.