220 THE VITAMINES 



The author (574) has investigated a crude oil and found that the 

 quantity of extractives therein was much greater than in the purified 

 oil. [Crude oil was found more active than refined oil in animal 

 experiments by Zilva and Miura (574a)]. 23.5 kilos of the oil were 

 extracted three times with about 660 cc. alcohol, 2 liters of water and 

 50 cc. concentrated HC1; the extracts were concentrated in vacuum, 

 the oily residue hydrolyzed with sulphuric acid and precipitated 

 with phosphotungstic acid. The practically dry precipitate weighed 

 969 grams. The oil, hydrolyzed with sulphuric acid (2 hours) gave 

 an additional 186 grams of this precipitate, while the oil remaining 

 after the concentration of the water-alcohol solution gave only 19.5 

 grams of the precipitate. A second portion of oil, weighing 25 

 kilos and treated with sulphuric instead of hydrochloric acid, gave 

 1117 grams phosphotungstate, of which 61.2 grams was insoluble in 

 acetone. This fraction, after the decomposition with lead acetate, 

 gave a precipitate with sublimate in alcoholic solution. A great 

 number of fractions were prepared by us, but could not be tested for 

 various reasons. 



One of the common conceptions regarding cod liver oil was that 

 the mysterious action of unsaturated oils was ascribed to it. How- 

 ever, this view has not yet been experimentally tested. Paal and 

 Roth (575) reduced cod liver oil with colloidal palladium and hydro- 

 gen to a solid, whereby the reduction of all the unsaturated bonds 

 was almost completely quantitative. The general nutritive value 

 of such an oil was investigated by Suzuki and his co-workers (I.e. 323) 

 and found favorable. Chapman (576) and a number of Japanese 

 workers including Tsujimoto (577) and Kubota (578) isolated from 

 cod liver oil a very unsaturated hydrocarbon called, "spinacen" or 

 "squalen," which, however, was found valueless as a substitute for 

 vitamine A by Suzuki. Bull (579) obtained a mixture of C 2 oH 3 oBrio02 

 and C2oH 28 Bri 2 02 on brominating cod liver oil. For use in the 

 therapy of leprosy, such products as sodium morrhuate were prepared 

 by Rogers (580). 



CHEMISTRY OF VITAMINE A IN BUTTER AND OTHER SOURCES 



The data on the chemistry of this vitamine in butter are very 

 uncertain and not infrequently contradictory. The first experiments 

 on the isolation of vitamine A from butter were made by McCollum 

 and Davis (I.e. 82). They reported that when a solution of butter 



