LOFODEN NORWEGIAN COD-LIVER OIL. 
319 
light-coloured oil prepared at a temperature of 100° or 110° F. His impression 
was that oil, peifectly bright, and not depositing any stearine at ordinary tem¬ 
peratures, might be obtained without filtration. 
The Chairman, referring to a very bright and light-coloured specimen of 
oil on the table, said be presumed it had been obtained by applying very little 
heat, or by pressing the livers without heat. He would be glad to know if that 
oil was supplied in commerce. 
Mr. Howden said it was the finest description of oil prepared by Mr. Moller, 
and imported commercially into this country. 
Mr. Ince was very much gratified at hearing such a practical paper, for, as 
far as he could gather, scarcely two authors could be found to agree in any way 
on the subject of cod-liver oil. Even the spelling of the island of Lofoden was 
very uncertain, and he was glad to see that the charts and maps to which Mr. 
Howden had referred followed the mode which he believed to be correct; whilst 
in two pamphlets which had recently been put into his hand, both of which 
were written on the spot, one at Bergen, the spelling was totally different. 
The same discrepancy was found in the views of different persons as to the 
chemical and therapeutical value of the different kinds of oil. In their 
own Journal they had had four different articles, and each writer came to 
a different conclusion. The first w 7 as a very elaborate paper by the late Mr. 
Pereira ; he was assisted by Dr. De Jongh, and aided by various other gentle¬ 
men, and came to the conclusion that the light-brown cod-liver oil was the best. 
The conclusion to be drawn from the present paper w r as, that the oil ought to 
be perfectly light, the colour being due to heat, and the oil being therefore in¬ 
ferior. In the journal again there was a short account by a French gentleman, 
residing at Brussels, who considered the light oil as perfectly useless, the light 
brown a little better, but that really good oil for medical purposes was to be ob¬ 
tained by putting the livers into iron pans, and extracting the oil by heat, when 
of course it became perfectly brown. They had not yet, therefore, been able to 
come to any definite conclusion as to which was really the best oil. There 
seemed even great difficulty in arriving at a true idea of the geography of the 
island and method of fishing, but he believed this might be in a great measure 
accounted for by the fact that most of the writers were lady and gentlemen 
tourists, who, though writing on the spot, were not accurate observers of what 
'they saw. There was, however, one account by a French gentleman which gave 
a great deal of valuable information. For instance, before the fishing was 
commenced a man was sent out with a sounding-line, and they did not begin 
until there was such a body of fish that they formed almost a rock beneath the 
surface of the water. 
Mr. Hills said the writer of the paper seemed rather to have ignored the 
fish which was caught around our own shores; a great deal, he believed, on the 
Doggerbank. 
Mr. Howden said there was no reason why England should not manufacture 
oil on a large scale, if they could obtain livers, but the supply was too small. 
It was true.that great quantities of fish were caught on the Doggerbank, but 
the livers were required for edible purposes. Of course livers were to be ob¬ 
tained if they would pay the price for them ; but the main supply (as had been 
represented to him at Billingsgate) of what were offered for sale consisted of 
the extremities of the livers nearest the gall-duct, which had for many years 
been considered as the perquisites of the men employed in the trade. I his 
custom had gone on until the men were in the habit of cutting off more than 
half the liver, and these they offered for sale to chemists, for the purpose of pre¬ 
paring oil. But the best oil could not be obtained, even from entire livers, un¬ 
less they were large sized. The livers must be selected of a large size, and 
perfectly healthy, and a large quantity of these must be used to produce the 
