December 2,1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
443 
COD-LIVER OIL, ITS MANUFACTURE 
AND COMMERCE. 
BY P. L. SIMMONDS. 
The trade in cod-liver oil lias become an im¬ 
portant and thriving one, and is evidently increasing 
with the advance in prices of late j^ears. Our 
average imports, taking the last three years as a 
criterion, are about 890 tuns,—the following figures 
giving the official imports and computed real value. 
The returns for 1870 and 1871 are not yet pub¬ 
lished. 
1807 . . 818 tuns, worth .£52,163. 
1868 . . 813 „ „ 56,878. 
1869 . . 1011 „ „ 75,081. 
The bulk of the oil received is pretty evenly 
divided between the two great seats of the cod 
fishery, Norway and Newfoundland, although the 
former is now taking the precedence in production. 
The following are the relative proportions and 
prices :— 
Imports from Norway. 
£. s. d. 
1867 . . 322 tuns, price 63 1 0 
1868 . . 399 „ „ 68 5 0 
1869 . . 399 „ „ 75 11 0 
Imports from British America. 
£. s. d. 
1867 . . 227 tons, price 63 16 0 
1868 . . 233 „ „ 68 0 0 
1809 . . 327 „ „ 74 8 0 
r It is strange that our merchants and fishermen at 
Newfoundland have allowed the Norwegians to 
trench so largely on this manufacture, for there has 
been no increase in the export from Newfoundland, 
which stood at 327 tuns of refined cod-liver oil in 
1857. 
From the above figures we see that the medical 
employment of cod-liver oil has attained to grand 
proportions with ourselves, whilst its use has also 
become very general in Europe, America and our 
colonies. 
The livers intended for preparing the medicinal 
oil are first washed and dried, and then, after a 
careful examination, to see that there is no gall left 
in them, they are placed in tinned iron pots. These 
are again placed in larger pots, and steam being 
circulated between them from a furnace, the liquefac¬ 
tion gradually proceeds. Some makers substitute 
hot water for steam, alleging that it is easier to 
regulate the temperature ; others allow the steam to 
enter the pots which contain the livers. As the 
melting proceeds, the oil is removed by larger ladles 
and left to cool. It is filtered once or twice and 
poured into barrels, when it is ready for shipment. 
The parts which do not readily liquefy, or which 
remain after filtration, are left in the pots and 
further heated, until they acquire a deep brown or 
olive colour. The brown oil thus extracted is em¬ 
ployed by curriers, and the residue or deposit forms 
a useful fertilizer for land. The fishermen who pre¬ 
pare the livers on then- own accoimt merely place 
them in casks or vats, and let them dissolve naturally, 
collecting the oil which drips. The first oil thus 
obtained is the clearest, and of a pale straw colour. 
It is to this the name of “ superior white ” is given. 
If the flavour is good, it is employed for medicine. 
In some countries it is even preferred to the medi¬ 
cinal oils obtained by steam. The second collection 
yields “ordinary white ” oil of the colour of Madeira 
wine, and the third a clear brown oil. It is this 
quality which is sold under the signature of Dr. 
de Jongh, of the Hague. The residue or deposit is 
heated, as in the steam factories, to obtain the com¬ 
mon brown oil for curriers, so largely used in the 
leather manufactories of Holland and the North of 
Germany. 
The best kinds of steam-prepared oil are shipped 
in tinned cases, and occasionally in oak barrels, as 
the Ordinary kinds of oil are. But in Finmark, if 
the fishing is abundant, they are obliged to ship in 
fir casks.* The export of all kinds of fish oil from 
Norway, which usually averages 7,000,000 or 
8,000,000 litres, was in 1866 nearly 10,500,000 litres. 
One method of making cod-liver oil is thus de¬ 
scribed in the report of the Select Committee on the 
working of the Fishery Act of Canada:—The appa¬ 
ratus is simple and inexpensive, consisting of a box 
made of common boards, which may be lined with 
tin, as being more easy to wash ; a cloth is laid in¬ 
side the box and upon this the livers are placed; the 
box is provided with a closety-fitted solid cover. A 
pot, holding forty or fifty gallons, with a tight-fitting 
wooden lid, is placed some feet from this box, and a 
wooden pipe or tube leads obliquely from the lid, and 
communicates with the box in which the livers are. 
Twenty-five or thirty gallons of water are put into 
the pot, and the steam entering the box, eliminates 
the oil and water resulting from the contents. A 
barrel is placed beneath the centre of the box, in 
which a hole is pierced to permit the oil to escape. 
After the steam lias been allowed to remain in the 
box for two or three hours the cover is removed, the 
livers stirred up, and a little salt thrown in to preci¬ 
pitate the strong parts of the liver. The contents 
are allowed to settle for five minutes, after which 
the oil which comes to the surface is removed. The 
box is then closed again, and the process repeated 
every hour. This must be carefully carried out, in 
order to obtain white and sweet oil of the best 
quality. When it is apparent that no more oil re¬ 
mains in the livers, they are exposed to the sun, and 
become fit to be used in making soap. By this 
method, from the same amount of livers, more than 
double the quantity of oil is obtained than from the 
former crude processes; from a cask containing 
thirty gallons can be extracted fifteen to seventeen 
gallons of oil of the best quality. 
At St. Pierre and Miquelon, where the French 
share in the Newfoundland cod-fishery, a consider¬ 
able trade is carried on, not only in the common 
cod-oil of commerce, but in refined cod-liver oil. 
The former is simply obtained by the fermentation 
of the livers in casks placed in the holds of the 
fishing-vessels, or on shore near the dwellings. 
About 500,000 kilogrammes a year are shipped 
of it. 
The preparation of brown and white medicinal oil 
at St. Pierre is becoming an object of much impor¬ 
tance, and has been encouraged by the Paris Aca¬ 
demy of Medicine, who state that the brown, pale 
and white oils of the French fisheries of Newfound¬ 
land equal the best products of the Norwegian and 
* ‘ Les Peclies de la Norwege,’ par Herman Baars. 
