648 
COD-LIVER OIL. 
By ether, a reddish-brown, transparent, glutinous extract was 
obtained, which melted by heat, stained paper, and had the odour 
and taste of bile. After some time, small crystals made their ap¬ 
pearance in it. It was slightly soluble in water, but readily so in 
ether, as well as in alcohol. A solution of carbonate of ammonia 
being added to its ethereal solution caused the separation of the 
mixture into two layers, an upper turbid layer, which by evapora¬ 
tion yielded some drops of olein , some crystals of margarin, and a 
brownish mass which was identical with that procured by the eva¬ 
poration of the lower layer. This brown mass had a bitter taste, 
was separated by water into a soluble and insoluble portion, and 
consisted of fellinate and cliolate of ammonia. 
The extract which had been exhausted by ether yielded to 
alcohol a blackish-brown, odourless, bitter, shining, hygroscopic 
mass, which dissolved with difficulty in water, and consisted of 
biliverdin, bilifulvin, and bilifellinic acid. 
Dilute spirit removed from the residual extract a black shining 
substance, soluble in alkalies, concentrated sulphuric acid, and hot 
acetic acid, but insoluble in nitric and hydrochloric acids. From 
its alcoholic solution, baryta water and acetate of lead precipitated 
it of a brown colour. It left no residue by burning. 
The residue of the aqueous extract, left after the action of the 
three above-mentioned solvents, contained an organic substance 
(whose nature has not been determined) and inorganic salts, in which 
chlorine, phosphoric and sulphuric acids, lime, magnesia, and soda 
were found, but no potash or iodine. 
5. Iodine , bromine, and chlorine. —Considerable, though as I con¬ 
ceive unnecessary, importance has been given to the fact that cod- 
liver oil frequently or usually contains both iodine and bromine. 
To the presence of one or both of these substances has been as¬ 
cribed the whole or part of the remedial efficacy of the oil. A 
little consideration, however, would be sufficient to prove that 
their therapeutical agency in the oil must, if any, be exceedingly 
small. The proportions in which they exist in the oil are inconstant, 
though in all cases very small. Moreover, beneficial effects have 
been produced by the use of the oil which neither iodine nor bro¬ 
mine are capable of producing. 
Some chemists have failed to detect iodine in cod-liver oil. De 
Jongh says that it is present in every genuine oil, but that the 
only certain mode of detecting it is to saponify the oil, and carbonize 
the resulting soap. He confirms Stein’s remark, that neither by 
immediately carbonizing the oil, nor by saponifying it, and then de¬ 
composing the soap by acids, can the iodine be detected. It fol¬ 
lows, therefore, that iodine exists in the oil neither in the free 
state nor in that of metallic iodide, but probably in organic com- 
