344 
ON COD-LIVER OIL. 
2. If a mixture, consisting of a solution of six parts of caustic 
potash, twenty-four parts of distilled water, and twenty-four parts 
of cod-liver oil, be left for several days standing at the ordinary 
temperature and frequently shaken, then diluted with twenty-four 
parts of distilled water, and distilled, the distillate possesses the 
most intense odor of cod-liver oil, and contains a considerable 
quantity of a peculiar organic compound : oxide of propyle. 
3. If nine parts of cod-liver oil be saponified in a porcelain 
vessel, by five parts of oxide of lead in the water-bath, and the 
required quantity of distilled water added, the cod-liver oil is de- 
composed into oleic acid, an inorganic acid, and a new acid, 
namely, jiropylic acid. The greatest portion of this acid, as well 
as of the oleic and inorganic acids combine, as it appears, with 
the oxide of lead, to form a basic compound. Another, very pro- 
bably, acid salt of lead, can be extracted from the plaster-mass by 
washing it with distilled water. Not a trace of the hydrated 
oxide of glyceryle is formed on this occasion. The mass smells 
very disagreeably of train oil and herring, and if exposed in very 
thin layers in the water-bath, to the influence of atmospheric 
air, it assumes a dark-brown color after the water is evaporated, 
at the same time the disagreeable odor for the most part disap- 
pears. 
This colorization is a consequence of the strong tendency of the 
propylates to become oxidized, and by this to become dark. If 
the solution of acid propylate of the oxide of lead be treated with 
sulphuretted hydrogen, and the sulphuret of lead be removed, we 
obtain a perfectly colorless solution, which has a strong acid re- 
action, becomes colored by evaporation in the water-bath, loses 
the very disgusting odor of train-oil, and at last leaves an intensely 
brown colored residue. Exactly the same is the case with the 
watery solutions of the neutral propylates of baryta and ammonia. 
The perfectly neutral, colorless, but undecomposed solution of the 
ammoniacal salt smells of herrings, but that of the salt of lead 
smells like concentrated broth. 
4. If a solution of cod-liver-oil-soap, prepared as stated in No. 
3, be distilled in a suitable spacious distilling apparatus, with an 
addition of caustic lime and chloride of ammonium (in the propor- 
tion of six drachms hydrate of potash, three ounces of cod-liver oil, 
six ounces of w r ater, six ounces of fresh burnt caustic lime, and 
