GADUS MORRHUA. 



or more largely, at establishments to which the livers are con- 

 veyed in quantities by the fishermen. These are put into a 

 boiler with water, and heated until they are broken up into a 

 pultaceous mass, which is thrown upon a strainer covering the 

 top of a cask or tub. The liquid portion passes, and upon 

 standing separates into two parts, the oil rising to the surface 

 of the water. The oil is then drawn off, and, having been 

 again strained, is prepared for the market. Another and im- 

 proved method, which has come into use since the extensive 

 employment of the oil as a medicine, is to heat the livers in a 

 large tin vessel by means of steam externally applied. The 

 pultaceous mass resulting is drained as before mentioned ; the 

 livers themselves containing, besides oil, a considerable portion 

 of watery fluid, which passes off with it in the form of emul- 

 sion, and separates on standing. The oil thus procured is 

 called shore oil) from the circumstances of its preparation, and 

 is the purest kind. The crews of the larger boats, which fish 

 upon the banks far from land, cleanse the fish on board, and, 

 throwing the offal into the sea, put the livers into barrels or 

 other suitable receptacles, where they undergo a gradual putre- 

 factive decomposition, the oil rising to the surface as it escapes 

 from the disintegrating tissue. The oil which first rises, be- 

 fore putrefaction has very decidedly commenced, approaches 

 in purity to the shore oil, but is somewhat darker and less 

 sweet. This is sometimes drawn of, constituting the straits 

 oil of the fishermen. The remaining mass, or the whole, if 

 the portion which first rises be not separated, remains exposed 

 a variable length of time to the heat of the sun, undergoing 

 putrefaction, until the boat, having completed her cargo, re- 

 turns to port. The contents of the casks are then put into 

 boilers, heated with water, and treated as already described. 

 Before being finally put into barrels, the oil is heated to expel 

 all its water. Thus prepared, it is denominated banks oil, 

 and is of the darkest color, and most offensive to the taste and 

 smell. Much of the oil prepared by the fishermen is collected 

 by the wholesale dealers in the large towns, who keep it in 

 huge reservoirs of masonry in their cellars, where it becomes 

 clarified by repose, and is pumped into barrels as wanted for 

 use. By the further exposure, however, which it thus under- 

 goes, it acquires a still more offensive odor, while that which 

 has been originally introduced into barrels, and thus kept ex- 

 cluded from the air, is better preserved. 



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