Am  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Dec,  1884.  J 
Eulachon  Oil. 
629 
whence  the  name  candle  fish.  The  aborigines  take  the  fish  in  immense 
numbers  by  the  aid  of  a  primitive  contrivance,  resembling  a  rake  or 
comb,  the  moonlight  nights  being  the  most  favorable  time  for  carrying 
on  the  operation. 
The  fish  are  submitted  to  a  rude  operation  for  "  rendering  "  the  oil, 
or  they  are  dried,  and  smoked.  In  recent  times  the  dried  and  salted 
fish  have  become  an  important  article  of  export  from  Victoria,  and 
there  is  now  on  the  Naas  river  a  manufactory  for  the  oil,  which  has 
been  employed  to  some  extent  in  England  as  a  substitute  for  cod-liver 
oil.  It  has  been  used  medicinally  to  a  considerable  extent  in  British 
Columbia,  but  I  do  not  find  any  record  of  clinical  observations  with 
regard  to  its  therapeutic  value. 
Chemical  analysis,  of  course,  cannot  reveal  the  medicinal  properties 
of  any  drug.  Cod-liver  oil  itself  is  an  example  of  this.  While  uni- 
versally accepted  as  an  agent  of  singular  efficiency  in  promoting  nutri- 
tion, particularly  in  strumous  and  tubercular  patients,  it  has  thus  far 
guarded  as  a  profound  secret  the  cause  of  its  efficiency,  and  the  reason 
of  its  superiority  in  this  respect  over  other  oils,  vegetable  or  animal. 
It  has  been  frequently  subjected  to  chemioal  analysis,  and  one  wonder- 
ful discovery  after  another  announced  with  flourish  of  trumpets,  each 
supposed,  for  a  while,  to  furnish  a  key  to  the  mystery,  but  each  in  turn 
has  been  abandoned,  and  the  medical  profession  generally  regard  the 
remedy  as  nothing  more  than  a  concentrated  and  easily  assimilated  food. 
Iodine,  phosphorus,  iron,  biliary  acids,  cholesterin,  and  oxide  of  propyl 
are  among  the  constituents  of  the  oil  which  have  been  supposed  to  give 
it  its  peculiar  medicinal  character,  but  none  of  these  substances  is  pres- 
ent in  a  quantity  sufficient  to  justify  any  such  hypothesis,  and  one  after 
another  all  have  been  abandoned  as  unsatisfactory. 
Some  other  animal  oils,  however,  have  been  found  to  improve  nutri- 
tion in  much  the  same  way  as  does  the  familiar  cod-liver  oil ;  only  by 
clinical  experiments  can  we  determine  the  value  of  any  new  claimant  for 
;a  share  of  the  honors  which  cod-liver  oil  has  monopolized. 
A  comparison  of  the  oils,  however,  may  prove  of  interest  and,  pos- 
sibly, even  of  value,  should  eulachon  oil  become  a  common  article  of 
of  commerce,  whether  it  should  prove  to  be  more  or  less  valuable  than 
its  rival. 
The  oil  of  the  candle  fish  as  it  is  sent  into  the  market  at  present 
contains  much  palmitin  and,  probably,  stearin,  so  that  at  common  tem- 
peratures it  is  only  semi-fluid. 
