1. It is a clear liquid and no globules of oil are seen under the microscope. It is therefore not an emulsion.
2. It is of acid reaction when mixed with water and remains clear when strongly acidified. Hence it does not contain a soap, and is not a saponification of fat.
3. It mixes with water without precipitation, hence, it can not contain more than traces of a fatty acid.
The chemist admits in his letter to the firm that his analyses verify statements 1 and 3, but regarding statement 2 he says: “I find that your preparation is acid in reaction, but when strongly acidified gives a distinct turbidity within 10 minutes and a voluminous precipitate within 1 hour. This precipitate is shown to consist of fatty acids of cod-liver oil, which are thrown down by the splitting of the soaps, on acidifying either with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid.” From these results he states that to him it seems that the “preparation does not deserve the statement that it contains no soap, as there is no question whatever of the presence of cod-liver oil.”
While in the letter published in this advertisement the chemist claims to have demonstrated the presence in the product of “saponified cod-liver oil,” he omits to mention the quantities of the soap present. In the article that originally appeared in The Journal (Oct. 13, 1906), in addition to the three paragraphs quoted by the chemist, the following statements were made:
“By these simple tests a physician is easily able to demonstrate that the preparation does not contain cod-liver oil. It is therefore valueless for the purpose of nutrition for which we give the oil. More careful analysis confirms the results of these tests and shows that it contains no fat or fatty acids (except the merest traces)....”
At the time these statements were published in The Journal, the St. Paul Medical Journal, October, 1906, contained an advertisement for Waterbury’s Metabolized Cod-Liver Oil Compound, which contained this statement:
“The only tasteless preparation on the market which contains Cod-Liver Oil in its entirety. The metabolized product is obtained by the action of digestive ferments on pure Cod-Liver Oil.”
In the Ohio Medical Journal of Feb. 15, 1907, there appeared in the form of an advertisement what purported to be an analysis of Waterbury’s Metabolized Cod-Liver Oil Compound by Prof. C. N. Kinney of Drake University. While Professor Kinney made a quantitative analysis of the preparation, the quantities were omitted from the analysis as published. A footnote added by the Waterbury Chemical Company called attention to this fact and closed as follows: