OBSERVATIONS
ON
THE COD-LIVER OIL.
OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
OLEUM JECORIS ASELLI,
OR
COD-LIVER OIL;
ITS NATURE, PROPERTIES, MODE OF PREPARATION, &c.
BY
MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE
ROYAL PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, &c. &c.
1849.
LONDON:
G. J. PALMER, PRINTER, SAVOY-STREET, STRAND.
The introduction of a new therapeutical agentinto general practice cannot fail to interest themedical profession and the public, and, profitingby the experience attained in a consideration ofthe manner in which former remedies have beenbrought into notice, extolled for their efficacy,persevered in for a time, and then graduallypermitted to fall into disuse, and finally sinkinto oblivion, it will doubtless be useful to reviewthe circumstances attendant upon the proposalnow so generally entertained of the administrationof the cod-liver oil for a variety ofdiseases and disorders.
Although it is only of late that the attentionof the public has been particularly drawn to thissubject, principally by the zealous endeavours ofthe Medical Practitioners of Germany, it will befound upon inquiry that the remedy is by nomeans a novel proposal; nor are we even indebtedto our foreign savans for its introduction.It is to be traced back to the latter part of the18th century, at which time it was extensivelyused in the Manchester infirmary, and its effects,as there exhibited, have been reported by thelate Dr. Samuel Argent Bardsley, in his “MedicalReports,” 1807, 8vo. This able physician,who was for many years attached to the Manchesterinfirmary, in which institution chronicrheumatism formed a very large proportion ofthe medical cases under treatment, states, thatfor this afflicting malady, the Oleum JecorisAselli, or cod-liver oil, enjoyed a high reputationin Lancashire, and that thirty years previouslyto the time at which he published his useful andtruly practical work, it was introduced by one ofthe physicians to the infirmary, and that its successwas such as to induce the celebrated Dr.[7]Percival to recommend it to his notice and attentionas deserving of a fair and extensivetrial.
Dr. Percival remarks, (Works, vol. iv. p. 355,)that it was so largely dispensed at the Manchesterinfirmary, that “near a hogshead of itwas disposed of annually;” yet its employmentwas almost solely confined to the relief ofcases of chronic rheumatism, sciatica, and thosecontractions and rigidities so frequently theconsequences of exposure to damp and cold.In these cases it was considered as superior toall other remedial means that had been used,and its beneficial effects were strikingly apparent.The operation of the oil in the first instance