335 
On the Edulcoration of Fish- Oil) 
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taming the gelatinous matter, being also burst from the 
same cause, such matter being then rendered saponaceous 
by the putrefaction, a part of it mixes intimately with the 
oil, and constitutes it a compound of the proper oleaginous 
parts and this heterogeneous fluid. 
The presence of the bile in fish-oil is occasioned by its 
being, in many cases, extracted from the liver of the fish ; 
which is not to be so profitably done by other means as 
by putrefaction; and the bile being consequently dis- 
charged, together with the oil from the vessels of the li- 
ver containing them, combines with it, both from the ori- 
ginal saponaceous property of bile, and from that which 
it acquires by putrefaction. 
This holds good particularly of the cod-oil, or com- 
mon train, brought from Newfoundland, which, from its 
high yellow colour, viscid consistence, and repugnance 
to burning Well in lamps, manifests sensibly the presence 
of bile and the gelatinous fluid ; which latter, by the sa- 
ponaceous power of the bile, is commixed in a greater 
proportion in this than in any other kind of fish-oil. 
A tendency to putrefy, or at most but in an extremely 
slow manner, is not an absolute property of perfect oils 
in a simple or pure state, but it is a relative property de- 
pendent upon their accidental contact or commixture with 
the aqueous fluid. This is evident from the case of oils 
concreted into a sebaceous form ; which being perfectly 
oleaginous and uncombined with any water, except such 
as enters into their component parts, will not putrefy un- 
less water, or something containing it, is brought into con- 
tact with them. But the fluid animal and most vegetable 
oils being compounded of perfect oils with other mixed 
substances, either sub-oleaginous or gelatinous, have al- 
ways a putrescence per se , or tendency to putrefy, with- 
out further admixture of aqueous moisture. This com- 
mixture of heterogeneous matter in fish-oil, particularly of 
