210 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIII, 



Cornwall to be a medicinal panacea. Apparently sardines (and 

 pilchards) contain solid fats which do not become fluid unless 

 heated beyond even tropical day temperatures. 



Stearine has a stronger and more persistent odour than the oil, 

 but in general is not separated from any oil except from the finer 

 qualities, as it melts at a comparatively low temperature and there- 

 fore serves as well as the oil in such operations as steel tempering, 

 jute batching, etc., and the oil is generally sold just as it is produced, 

 without any special separation or refinement, as oil-cum-stearine : 

 no objection is raised on the ground of its stearine contents. 



The word "stearine" is apt to mislead, since the substance 

 contains little or no stearic acid ; in fact fish stearine is said to 

 consist mostly of palmitin ; however, if neutral, it fhould prove 

 very valuable for hydrogenation into a tallow suitable for technical 

 purposes such as soap making. 



The only method hitherto adopted on the West Coast for 

 separating the stearine has been by settling and decantation, a 

 very crude method, since much of the oil remains entangled in the 

 stearine and, as mentioned above, in cooler climates, oil clear in 

 Madras deposits further stearine. The absence of a winter or of a 

 temperature below, say 70° F., and of artificial refrigeration, 

 entirely prevents the preparation of " winter oil " by the means 

 mentioned in paragraph 39. An experiment with a small filter 

 press was unsuccessful, as no means of cooling the oil were avail- 

 able. If perfectly clear " winter oil " is required for medicinal or 

 special (edible) purposes, further experiment with cooled oil, a 

 proper filtering medium, and suitable apparatus will be necessary ; 

 the matter is further dealt with in the paragraphs on " refinement.'' 

 104. Fish tallow is also much used in preparing lubricating 

 greases, sod-oil (degras\ degras substitutes, stuffing greases, etc. 

 (Lewkowitsch). In the United States of America menhaden oil is 

 the oil used in chamoising skins and in the consequent preparation 

 of the resulting "sod-oil" (degras) which is used in currying or 

 dressing bark-tanned or chrome-tanned leather; and in general 

 commerce artificial (factitious) degras prepared from " menhaden, 

 sardine, Japan fish oils, fish stearines, etc.," are found as substitutes 

 for the genuine degras : the artificial substitutes are made by 

 blowing air through the fish oil (or melted stearine), so as to 

 imitate the natural oxidation of the genuine process. But it would 

 seem that there may be some bacterial action in addition to simple 

 oxidation. 



