AQUATIC PRODUCTS IN ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 185 



seals, walrus, and whales, foi- food supplies. Among inoi-c civilized 

 nations fish oils are not used ordinarilj^ as an article of diet; an excep- 

 tion, liowever, is the well-known and valuable cod-liver oil, of which 

 twenty or thirty thousand Ijarrels are annuallj^ consumed in cases of 

 malnutrition. Certain therapeutic qualities are also attributed to 

 various minor oils, as those from the shark, eulachon, manatee, 

 dugong, alligator, terrapin, etc., but the use of these is not general. 



The marine-animal oils are divisible into four principal groups, viz: 

 (1) blubber oils; (2) head oils; (o) liver oils, and (4) bodj' oils. The 

 blubber oils are obtained from the layer of fat l^etween the skin and 

 the flesh or muscular tissues of Miiales, seals, walrus, sea-lion, por- 

 poise, black-fish, etc. Head oils are secured from cavities in the skull 

 and from other head parts of sperm whales, black-fish, porpoise, 

 sword-fish, halibut, etc. Some of these are of superior quality, as 

 those of the black-fish and porpoise, for instance, which sell for 15 to 

 $10 i)er gallon. The head oil of the sperm whale yields the valuable 

 spermaceti. Those of the third group are obtained principallj^ from 

 the livers of cod and to a less extent from haddock, hake, pollock, 

 cusk, ling, sharks, and skates. The bodies, heads, and viscera of 

 these fish are so slightly oleaginous that they are rarely utilized eco- 

 nomically for oil purposes. The body oils, or fish oils,'* as the}' are now 

 generally known commercially, are obtained principally from species 

 of the herring family — Ihe menhaden in America, the heri'ing, sar- 

 dine, and pilchard in Europe, and the iwashi in .Japan. In case these 

 fish are used, for food in large quantities, the viscera are generally 

 devoted to oil-rendering. Most of the other species of food-fish con- 

 tain so little oil that it is profitable to use only the intestines or other 

 refuse dressings for this purpose. And in some the jield of oil is so 

 small that not even the waste parts can be profitably utilized in this 

 manner. In addition to the foregoing, there are a numl)er of oils 

 produced in various localities which enter largely into the domestic 

 economy of those procuring them and yet are of little commercial 

 importance, as alligator oil, turtle oil, terrapin oil, etc. 



The total annual product of crude oil from marine animals through- 

 out the world is estimated at 18,300,000 gallons, of which 5,500,000 

 represents the product from the blubber and fat of whales, seals, and 

 the like; 5,300,000 gallons is from the livers of cod, shark, etc., and 

 7,500,000 gallons from menhaden, herring, sardine, and other species, 

 including waste in dressing fish. 



Even a brief survey of the fish- oil industries reveals the fact that 

 they are not by any means so extensive as the natural resources per- 

 mit. True, the right-whale fishery is prosecuted apparently- to an 



« The term " fish oil " is used by chemists and other technologists as comprising oils from all 

 aquatic animals. Previous to IHCKJ it generally referred to whale oils. At the present time its 

 commercial use is generally confined to oils obtained from flsh alone. In a restricted sense it 

 ref era especially to oil obtained from the principal species of the herring family in the locality 

 in which the term is applied. Thus "flsh oil" on the Atlantic coast of the United States indi- 

 cates m a restricted commercial sense the oil of the menhaden; in Norway, the herring: in 

 France, the sardine; in Japan, the iwashi, etc. 



