3^8  Cod  Liver  Oil.  {Am^»r;1f^arm- 
Twenty-five  grams  of  the  mixture  of  oxalates  dried  over  recently 
fused  caustic  potash  yielded  12-5  grams  of  anhydrous  bases.  These 
were  submitted  to  careful  fractionation,  first  in  air  to  a  temperature 
of  1200  C.  and  then  in  vacuo.  Different  alkaline  liquids  passed  over 
in  succession,  and  there  remained  a  brown  magma  of  bases  that  were 
solid  or  undistillable  without  decomposition.  These  were  separated 
by  converting  them  into  hydrochlorides  or  platinochlorides. 
After  careful  repetition  of  these  operations  the  bases  in  cod  liver 
oil  were  classified  as  follows  : 
(1)  Fraction  boiling  at  Sy°-go°,  under  a  pressure  of  770  milli- 
metres— butylamine.  This  portion  constituted  about  one-sixth  of 
the  total  bases. 
(2)  Fraction  boiling  from  cjo°'to  ioo°,  under  the  same  pressure, 
with  a  fixed  point  970  and  980 — amylamine.  This  fraction  con- 
stituted one-third  of  the  whole. 
(3)  A  small  fraction  boiling  above  ioo°  and  below  1 1 5 °,  consist- 
ing especially  of  hexylamine. 
(4)  Fraction  boiling  towards  ioo°,  under  a  pressure  of  6  centi- 
metres of  mercury,  or  at  from  190°  to  2000  under  ordinary  pressure. 
This  consists  of  a  new  base,  diliydrotoluidine,  and  constituted  about 
one-tenth  of  the  total  alkaloids. 
(5)  The  fifth  portion  included  the  fixed  bases.  The  basic  residue 
that  could  not  be  distilled,  being  treated  with  dilute  hydrochloric 
acid,  dissolved  almost  completely.  This  solution,  which  was  slightly 
colored,  gave  immediately  with  platinic  chloride  a  flesh-colored 
precipitate,  alterable  in  light,  which  was  separated  from  the  mother- 
liquor,  and  dried  upon  biscuit  porcelain.  From  this  platinochloride 
a  hydrochloride  was  prepared  from  which  a  fixed  base,  named  by 
the  authors  aselline,  was  obtained  by  precipitation  with  potash. 
Upon  concentrating  the  mother-liquor  a  second  platinochloride, 
much  more  soluble  than  the  first,  was  deposited  of  constant  com- 
position to  the  end.  From  this  was  obtained  a  sixth  alkaloid  that 
constituted  about  one-third  of  the  total  alkaloids  of  the  oil.  This 
substance,  which  is  considered  by  the  authors  to  be  one  of  the  most 
efficacious  principles  in  cod  liver  oil,  has  been  named  morrhuine. 
There  remained  in  the  potassic  liquor,  after  the  basic  substances 
had  been  removed,  the  different  fixed  and  volatile  acids  with  which 
the  bases  were  combined  when  dissolved  out  by  the  acidulated 
