ON COD-LIVER OIL. 
345 
one drachm of chloride of ammonium,) with the precaution that 
the mixture of lime and chloride of ammonium be added to the 
soapy mixture previously introduced into the retort, so that the 
lime mixture be perfectly impregnated by the latter, the genera- 
tion of hydrate of lime takes place upon the application of a slight 
charcoal fire, with a rather strong heat ; at the same time a color- 
less liquid, clear, like water, is distilled over, and this is a con- 
centrated aqueous solution of propylamine, without free ammonia. 
The crystallized sulphate of propylamine is easily obtained from 
this solution by saturating it with diluted sulphuric acid, and pre- 
cipitating the resulting salt with spirit of wine. 
This very simple experiment is sufficient to prove with certainty 
the. proportion of the oxide of propyle in cod-liver oil ; the pro- 
pylamine possesses all the properties of that obtained from the 
brine of herrings or from ergot of rye. 
Conclusion. — Cod-liver oil, when saponified with potash, yields 
oleic and margaric acids, and oxide of propyle; with oxide of lead 
it forms oleic and margaric acids and a pure highly oxidized mat- 
ter from propyle, namely, propylic acid. In neither case of 
saponification is the hydrated oxide of glyceryl e obtained ; the gly- 
ceryle (C 6 H 3 ) is replaced in cod-liver oil by propyle (C 6 H 7 ). The 
generation of propylamine (NH 2 C 6 H 7 ), on the addition of am- 
monia, takes place only in cod-liver oil, and in no other officinal 
fatty oil, and its place in the Materia Medica cannot, therefore, 
be supplied by any other oil. 
It is not my intention to draw, from these investigations, any 
conclusion as to the medicinal efficacy of cod-liver oil. I am not 
a physician ; but when we reflect that the fat assimilated by the 
animal organism serves chiefly as a material for the process of 
respiration, the possibility of cod-liver oil undergoing during this 
process a decomposition similar to that wmich it undergoes by the 
influence of alkalies, is very plausible; and when we further con- 
sider that in such a decomposition, by the presence of the condi- 
tions requisite for the formation of ammonia, which, indeed, are 
never wanting in the animal organism, the formation of propyla- 
mine is highly probable, it is not surprising why cod-liver oil alone 
should prove so advantageous in many diseases, even exclusive of 
the slight proportion of iodine ; and I think myself justified in 
concluding that the efficacv of this oil depends chiefly upon the 
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