MANUFACTUllE OF COD-IJVER OIL IN NOEWAY. 
39 
to the products of its own decomposition. Perhaps protoxide of nitrogen is set free in 
the blood. As the blasting oil has the property of penetrating through organic tissues 
in a very marked manner, it is easy to understand that workmen handling the material 
should get headaches by absorption of it through the skin. As nitroglycerine is not 
volatile, no action through the lungs can take place. 
As the excellence of nitroglycerine as a blasting material is sufficiently proved, it 
will not be long before it finds a wide application. Then will come the question 
whether its poisonous properties are not so considerable as to forbid its employment. 
The author of the article referred to believes, from his researches, that this is not the 
case. Experiments on animals have shown that, to cause death, comparatively large 
doses are necessary. It is true that upon man small quantities produce decided symp¬ 
toms of poisoning, but, even after a somewhat large dose, these were not of such an 
alarming character as to cause any apprehension of a fatal termination. The author 
got about a hundred drops in his mouth and swallowed at least ten. Violent symptoms 
of poisoning came on, but not such as to cause anxiety about his life. In the arts and 
manufactures far more dangerous poisons are employed, such as phosphorus, cyanide of 
potassium, and corrosive sublimate. However, in consideration of the injuriousness of 
nitroglycerine, some precautionary regulations for its manufacture and sale should (in 
the author’s opinion) be adopted. Besides this, workmen should be taught the dangerous 
nature of the blasting oil, in order to prevent their injuring themselves by carelessness 
in handling it. If these means were taken, it is thought that nitroglycerine would 
scarcely be found more injurious than any of the other poisons used in the arts and 
manufactures. 
MANUFACTURE OF COD-LIVER OIL IN NORWAY. 
EY J, LEOX SOUBEIRAN. 
Having been charged in the month of August last, by the Zoological Acclimatation 
Society, to go to Bergen, in Norway, to study the exhibition of fish which was to be held 
there, I have received some information on the manufacture of cod-liver oil, which, I 
believe, offers sufficient interest to the pharmaceutist for me to make it known. 
Until latter years the cod-liver oil of commerce was obtained by the crude process of 
fermentation or putrefaction, the livers being thrown into barrels, and abandoned to 
themselves until the oil separated and arose to the surface, whence it was removed for 
use. Thus obtained, it is always coloured brown, and has a repulsive taste. The idea 
of heating the livers to extract the oil is of comparatively recent origin. This process, 
as applied in Norway by small manufacturers, is carried out by conducting the steam 
from a cylindrical boiler by several pipes into as many barrels containing the livers, each 
furnished with stopcocks at different heights. As the steam operates, the lighter- 
coloured oil separates and rises to the top, and should be drawn off as soon after it sepa¬ 
rates as possible. The oil obtained afterwards is more coloured and odorous, and it is 
thougiit that the solvent action of the steam extracts such substances as iodine and bro- 
mine compounds from the oil, and thus injures it. 
To obviate this inconvenience, most of the regularly organized factories in Norway 
have an apparatus consisting of a vessel surrounded by a steam-jacket, so arranged that 
the oil can filter off in measure as it separates, Avhich is considered to be a great improve¬ 
ment. This apparatus consists of a cylindrical vessel enclosing another cylindrical vessel 
of smaller diameter and less height, joined steam-tight to the first by a rim at the top. 
The inner vessel has a conical diaphragm, dividing it into two parts, which diaphragm 
is constructed of some material which acts as a filter, admitting the oil to flow into the 
lower apartment, whence it is draw’ii off by a stopcock, passing latterly through the 
steam chamber. This arrangement answers a good purpose. 
We saw at Bergen an apparatus made by one of our pharmaceutists, M. Bouilly, 
w'hich has appeared the simplest and most convenient of all. This consists qf a cast- 
iron boiler, so arranged that a large curved tube passing through it constitutes part of 
the chimney of the furnace w'hich heats it. From the top of this boiler four pipes con¬ 
vey the steam to four jacketed conical boilers, each capable of holding three or four 
barrels. The livers are placed in these, duly disintegrated, and as the oil separates it is 
removed at once into a large vessel, called a ‘ kyler,’ to cool. During its cooling it be- 
