The livers submitted to the treatment have to he in as good condition 

 as possible, and any not healthy-looking or fat are thrown out. Good livers 

 are recognized by a cream- colored tint and by being soft enough to be pierced 

 by light finger pressure. Hard and dark- colored livers do not yield enough 

 oil to be used. Those with a brown color or with greenish spots can be used 

 only for making industrial oil of inferior quality. 



On the boats where treating livers is not completely neglected, it is done 

 at the beginning of the season when it is not too cold. The best product is ob- 

 tained at this time. 



The operation is carried out in barrels, the upper end of which has an 

 opening large enough for the livers, stored on deck behind or near the cod 

 pens. The livers to be treated, put aside by the gutters, are simply thrown 

 in the liver barrels. By reason of the mass of livers and the decomposition 

 of the tissues, the oil soon separates and rises to the surface. As the oper- 

 ation proceeds, the oil is drawn off to barrels which, when filled, are lower- 

 ed to the hold for storage. 



The product is a very light clear oil, lightly colored with little odor. 

 After undergoing treatment to purify and deodorize it, it is suitable for phar- 

 maceutical use, while inferior oils, malororous and dark-colored, are much 

 less valuable and are used for industrial purposes, such as leather making, 

 with the oils of other varieties of fish. 



When, in cold weather, the separation of the oil is retarded, the pro- 

 cess is speeded up by pouring a quantity of hot water into the barrels. Oil 

 thus extracted does not have as good a color as that formed naturally. 



On the other hand, the relatively warm temperatures of mid- summer 

 cause rapid separation of the oil, but the oil thus obtained has a reddish col- 

 or and an offensive odor which relegates it to industrial uses. 



Oils obtained by autolysis have a reputation of turning rancid quickly, so 

 that their pharmaceutical use has been almost totally eliminated in favor of 

 oils prepared by modern methods. 



The saving of roe is even more neglected by the bank vessels than the 

 preparation of liver oil, in spite of a bonus of 15 francs per hundredweight, 

 instituted by a law of February 26, 1911, for roe of good quality brought back 



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