CODLIN MOTH, Pyralis pomona, a small moth which is very injurious in apple orchards in some pars of Britain, laying its eggs in the eyes of the newly-formed fruit, within which the larva feeds, so that the growth of the fruit is arrested, and it falls prematurely off. The moth is one of the tortricida, agreeably colored, with rather short and broad wings. The caterpillar has 16 feet.
OIL is generally obtained from the livers of the common cod (q.v.), but likewise from allied species, as ling, dorse. coal-fish, torsk, etc. In these fish, the adipose tissue (q.v.) containing oil, is almost entirely confined to the liver, in which they agree with the shark tribe, whilst in other fish, as in the herring and salmon, the oil is dif fused over the entire structure of the animal. Cod-liver oil is prepared largely in Britain, Norway, and Newfoundland. There are three varieties of the oil sold in corn• merce—pale cod-liver oil, pale-brown cod-liver oil, and dark-brown cod-liver oil.
In the preparation of the oil, the livers are placed in a tub with a layer of spruce boughs at the bottom, and subjected to pressure, when the light-colored or pale oil exudes, and is run off by an opening at the lower part of the tub. As the livers par tially putrefy, more oil escapes, which is darker than that procured from the fresh livers, and constitutes the pale-brown oil; whilst the residual livers being boiled with water. part with the remaining oil they contain, and yield the dark-brown oil. The pale oil thus approaches more nearly the condition in which the oil is present in the livers, while the other varieties are more or less impregnated with the products of the putrefaction of the livers. The purer oil has a peculiar fishy odor and taste, which is not disagreeable, although it remains for a little time, and in some cases requires a little practice to get accustomed to it. The darker varieties have more or less of a disagreeable empyreu• matie odor and taste, and leave in the throat an unpleasant. nauseous sensation, more difficult to overcome.
The oil mainly consists of oleic and margaric acids, in combination with glycerine, and holding in solution the constituents of the bile, acetic acid, a phosphorized oil, as also iodine and bromine. These ingredients are most largely present in the light colored oil. Cod-llver Oil is occasionally adulterated With more or less train-oil, to which a little iodine has been added. In the purer varieties of cod-liver oil, the presence of any such admixture can be at once observed from the disgusting odor, although in the darker varieties of cod-liver oil the test of odor cannot be relied on.
Asa remedy, cod-liver oil has a great reputation as efficacious in the treatment of scrofulous and tubercular diseases, and especially in consumption (q.v.); it has also been used extensively in chronic rheumatism, in rickety affections, and in other diseases of the bones and joints. The virtues of cod-liver oil have been ascribed to iodine, bromine, and other specific ingredients; but, on the whole, the most probable view of its action is that it is simply a fattening agent –a fatty food—and that it acts by nourishing the system in cases attended with emaciation, just as new milk, cream, and butter, or fat bacon, will sometimes act in similar cases. Cod-liver oil is often found to be more easily digested than, from its somewhat disagreeable odor and taste, might have been expected. Children, in particular, often take it readily; and in emaciated old people, it is some times of great service in conjunction with remedies suited to the peculiar character of the case. In true tubercular consumption, it has for sonic years enjoyed a great reputa tion; but it is very far from having anything like a specific remedial action in that dis ease. Cod-liver oil is commonly taken in doses of from a dessert-spoonful to a table spoonful three times a day; but a pint, or even more, is said to have been consumed daily in some instances with good effect, or at least without injury.