366 Biochemistry of Cod-Liver Oil [June-September 



The distillation was continued to 215°. After cooling, the dark 

 brownish residue was extracted with ether. The ethereal extract was 

 evaporated and the residue dissolved in dil. hydrochloric acid sol. To 

 this sol., platinic chlorid was added, The resuhing precipitate was 

 the chloro-platinate of aselin, an alkaloid of the composition indi- 

 cated by the formula C25H32N4, present in the original oil in small 

 quantity. From the mother-liquor the chloro-platinate of morrhuin 

 was obtained, to which the formula C19H27N3 was ascribed. It is 

 possible that these two substances were secondary products of the 

 distillation, 



. A second paper dealing with this subject was published by Isco- 

 vesco (2), who Claims to have isolated a lipoid from cod liver that 

 possesses all the known therapeutic properties of cod-liver oil. 



The writer has been working on this subject during the past year 

 in the hope of isolating vitamine-like substances that might account 

 for the action of the oil in curing rickets and accelerating growth. 

 The results of the preliminary work are given below. 



Regarding the action of cod-liver oil there are two distinct 

 views: that of the writer (3), who attributes the action to the 

 presence in the oil of a vitamine-like substance; and of Osborne 

 and Mendel (4) who regard the action as due to the special nature 

 of the fats in the oil. The work of Gautier and Mourgues, and 

 that of the writer, show that cod-liver oil contains a certain amount 

 of organic bases, a fact which must be taken into account. 



If the writer's view is correct, it might be advisable to admin- 

 ister, in rickets, cod-liver oil that is less purified than that used at 

 present. Also, it should be possible to administer an extract of the 

 organic bases without the oil. Such products have been obtained 

 and will be tested on animals at the earliest opportunity. As ex- 

 perimental animals, chickens will be used, which develop in captivity, 

 on a uniform diet, a condition resembling rickets. Some of the 

 results obtained with cod-liver oil have already been published else- 

 where (3). 



The cod-liver oil subjected to fractionation was a very dark 

 crude oil. A second sample of crude oil, though lighter in color, 

 gave much less extractive material than the darker one. In the 

 first case the oil was extracted by a method very similar to thal 



