306 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY. 
and the residue of an old and rancid ointment being left in the pot, would soon 
spoil what was added to it. 
Mr. Martindale thought an improvement might be effected in Unguentum 
.Plumbi Subacetatis by substituting oil of almonds for olive oil. 
Mr. Clayton said he had found red precipitate ointment made with oil of 
almonds and white wax to keep well for eight months, but in that case the wax 
used was pure block wax. 
ANALYSIS OF A QUACK IMPOSTURE. 
BY DR. ATTFIELD, 
DIRECTOR OF THE SOCIETY’S LABORATORIES. 
I desire to bring before the members of the Pharmaceutical Society, chemists 
and druggists generally, and the public, an analysis of a substance which is 
stated to be cod-liver oil, in the form of an agreeable saccharine powder, but 
which does not contain a trace of that medicine. 
This substance is sold in small flat boxes of two sizes, containing respectively 
about four and two ounces of a white powder, and having labels in French, the 
translation of which is as follows“ Oleo-Morrhuine, or Saccharide of Cod-liver 
Oil: 6 francs or 5 shillings the box; 3£ francs or 3 shillings the half-box. This 
saccharine powder, by reason of the extreme division of the oil, is, in a very 
small bulk, more efficacious than all the cod-liver oils of commerce, as already 
proved by long experience. General depot, Roberts and Co., Pharmaciens, 23, 
Place Vendome, Paris ; and Wilcox and Co., Chemists, 336, Oxford Street, 
London.” Around the box is a label, also in French u Easy to take and more 
efficacious than the cod-liver oil of commerce, which often becomes prejudicial 
on account of the nausea which it inspires.” On the inside of the lid of each 
box is another lahel: u Saccharide of Cod-liver Oil. This powder has the great 
advantage of being supported by all stomachs, and of easily assimilating itself 
in the organism. This precious result is obtained by the extreme division of the 
oil, whose elements (chlorine, iodine, bromine, phosphorus, and sulphur, etc.) 
are absorbed without repugnance, whilst the oil of commerce is rejected, and 
often becomes prejudicial by the nausea which it inspires.” 
ihe obvious intention of the writer of these labels is to induce persons igno¬ 
rant of the properties of oils to believe that the well-known medicine cod-liver 
oil has been brought into a state of minute division by being mixed with a sac¬ 
charine powder ; that in this state it is so much more active, that a small dose 
will have as great an effect as a much larger dose of the oil itself ; and that the 
natural tendency of cod-liver oil to become rancid and nauseating is prevented 
by the influence of the saccharine matter added. Any one, however, conversant 
with the characters of oil, must at once see that this nostrum cannot be what it 
is stated to be. For oil, minutely divided by the agency of a powder, presents 
so much surface to the air that it becomes rancid in a far shorter time than 
when in bulk: such a mixture would soon be so offensive to the nose and palate 
as to be utterly unsaleable. If to this be added the facts that the action of cod- 
liver oil on the system is not materially influenced by its state of division, and 
that the amount of oil which can be added to powdered sugar without the latter 
losing its pulverulent form is so small, that a teaspoonful of the mixture would 
have no appreciable effect when swallowed, it must be evident that this so-called 
saccharide of cod-liver oil contains no cod-liver oil at all. 
But if not cod-liver oil, what is it ? It is nothing but powdered milk-sugar. 
A considerable amount of this sugar is now extracted from milk, chiefly for use 
in the manufacture of homoeopathic globules and certain varieties of infant’s 
food ; it can therefore be obtained readily and cheaply. A quantity costing a 
