INTRODUCTION. XXV 



semi-liquid state, they should be rejected. It is found in Newfoundland that in a therapeutic 

 point of view fat livers are not so good for cod-liver oil as lean ones. 



Government possesses at Calicut on the Malabar coast a small establishment, for the prepa- 

 ration of fish-liver oil for hospital use, the returns from which, with an account of the mode 

 pursued in preparing the oil, have unfortunately not been received, although applied for. If its 

 rancid fishy taste and high colour could be obviated, it would probably form as good an article for 

 consumptive patients as the cod-liver ofl. Information is still needed as to the period of the year 

 when the livers of the Indian fishes possess the most iodine and other medicinal ingredients, and 

 also whether sex has any bearing on the efficacy of the drug. 



Common fish-oil, which forms so large an article of export in Malabar, may be said to be 

 manufactured from the OU Sardine, Sardinella Neohoivii, C. fy V., for the addition of other fishes 

 must be considered accidental or wasteful, whilst medicinal fish-liver oil is too valuable to be thus 

 disposed of. This fish-oil is prepared either by heat or putrefaction. The first is much the same 

 mode as is employed in obtaining the fish-liver oil, except that large iron cauldrons are used, and 

 that a longer time is required for its preparation. The second plan is mostly carried out in a 

 boat divided into two by a perforated iron compartment, the fish being left to decompose in water 

 on one side, and the oil floats through the partition to the other, where it is skimmed off. The 

 fish-oil is adapted for every use to which animal oils can be put, and its export which a few years 

 since was almost unrecognized, and in fact so lately as 1850-51 only amounted to the value of 

 £1271, has now reached an average in British Malabar of above £7000 yearly value. 



Isinglass is obtained in Malabar under the designation of " fish maws" or " fish sounds," and 

 is exported to Bombay, from whence it finds its way to China. It is in fact an unprepared isinglass, 

 and the trade in it appears to be steadily increasing in Malabar, the amount having averaged 

 239 cwts. yearly during the last ten years. In the first half of this period the average yearly 

 exports were only 121 cwts., in the latter half they rose to 357 cwts. In examining the ports 

 from which the exports were despatched, it is unfortunate that the subject is not mentioned in 

 the returns from the two native States, but it is corroborative of what appears to be the case, 

 that the isinglass-furnishing species are more numerous towards the north than to the south : 

 Tellicherry and Calicut being the chief places of export, whilst the amount from Cochin only 

 just exceeds 11 cwts. yearly. 



The Malabar isinglass or " fish maws" appears to be principally prepared from the swimming 

 bladder of a species of Siluroid, one of the sub-group Arii (p. 175) or Cat-fish, which G. A. 

 Ballakd, Esq., — who has been good enough to furnish me with a drawing of it — informs me is 

 termed Yeta at Calicut, and grows to two and a half feet in length : it has four cirri reaching 

 almost to the base of the pectoral fin; but without examining a specimen it is impossible to 

 determine the exact species, still all the members of the family are probably employed for this 



