896 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXU. No. 834 



of real value than several dollars worth of 

 the lecithin preparations in the market. 

 Of the extracts of malt, and the various 

 predigested foods considered, something 

 similar may be said, and probably the 

 council will have to say it. 



But in the work of exposing frauds we 

 have rendered a service of some distinct 

 value to the public. Of the thousand or 

 more articles passed upon several hundred 

 have been rejected as unworthy to find a 

 place in our book, and therefore not suit- 

 able for consideration, even, by physicians. 

 Thus far I have just said, our findings 

 have been too liberal, rather than too criti- 

 cal. The rejections have been for various 

 reasons and if I had the time I should lLl5;e 

 to give a list of them. But a few illustra- 

 tions will suffice. 



We devoted much time to the study of a 

 so-called metabolized cod liver oil. The 

 name is a catchy one. We all like to talk 

 of metabolism; it sounds well and appar- 

 ently means a great deal. Cod liver oil 

 has been used through a long period as a 

 food for consumptives, especially, and 

 great value has been claimed for it, prob- 

 ably without better reasons than might be 

 assigned for other oils. But the taste and 

 odor are bad, which are practical objec- 

 tions to its use, and besides many people 

 have trouble in digesting it, or any oil in 

 fact. Because of difficulties in digestion the 

 so-called predigested foods have come into 

 notice, and I must say that most of them 

 are things which are to be avoided. A 

 firm in a western city attempted to do more 

 than this; it concocted and advertised to 

 physicians a metabolized cod liver oil, not 

 only digested, but metabolized. Eightly 

 interpreted this name signified more, prob- 

 ably, than the manufacturers intended. As 

 ordinarily used the term metabolism refers 

 to the sum of the changes through which a 

 substance goes in passing through the 



body, and a metabolized fat is properly a 

 completely oxidized product, a mixture of 

 carbon dioxide and water, and therefore of 

 no value as a food. On first examination 

 of the product in question it was found to 

 consist essentially of an alcoholic liquid 

 with sherry wine flavor. Nothing of any 

 value could be discovered in it. When the 

 manufacturers were told of our findings 

 they replied with much display of chemical 

 learning that our analyses were faulty, we 

 must look for metabolized oil. They were 

 sure the product contained it, and a mem- 

 ber of the firm with a chemist in their em- 

 ploy actually came in time to my labora- 

 tory to convince me that we must be wrong 

 in our criticism. They returned home 

 somewhat wiser, but not repentant. This 

 is their scheme of metabolism: The oil was 

 put in a tank with a large volume of luke- 

 warm water, pepsin and hydrochloric acid 

 to digest something, and sodium carbonate 

 and minced or powdered pancreas to digest 

 soniething else. The mixture was stirred 

 up frequently and finally filtered, and to 

 the filtrate enough wine was added to pre- 

 serve it. All of the products of the meta- 

 bolism were supposed to be in the filtrate, 

 while the emulsion-like mass on the filter 

 was thrown away! Notice the absurdity 

 of the whole process. Pepsin and hydro- 

 chloric acid, pancreas extract and alkali, 

 fat and water all in one mixture. What 

 the pepsin and acid were supposed to ac- 

 complish I could not discover, but even 

 without them the alkali and pancreas 

 could alter or digest but little of the fat 

 under the conditions. The fat was indeed 

 left on the filter, practically all of it, and 

 thrown away. 



It seems like a waste of time to discuss 

 such products, but remember they are sold 

 to physicians, used by physicians and often 

 praised by physicians as efficient remedies. 

 The only way to discourage this scandalous 



