Our Notes & References

First edition of this major chemical and medical study of cod liver oil by its main promoter – a choice copy bound for the Russian Tsar.

A 19^th-century physician who practised in The Hague, L.-J. de Jongh spent years promoting the medical virtues of the famous ingredient – which he was also selling under his own brand, celebrated as superior in The Medical Record and The Lancet and for which he had a “sole consignee and agent” in New York.

The present work is a culmination of more than a decade of research and experiences, building on and enlarging Jongh’s Disquisitio comparativa medico-chemica de tribus olei jecoris aselli specibus, published 10 years earlier. The author discusses traditional and more recent types of cod liver oil, producing experimental data on their interaction with water, soap and other substances to determine their chemical composition. He then examines major medical conditions they can alleviate including rheumatism, scrofula, tumours and tuberculosis.

L’Huile de foie de morue became the definitive study on the subject, and de Jongh was awarded a Knighthood of the Order of Leopold of Belgium for his innovative medical studies.

Scarce: although copies can be found in a few European libraries, WorldCat shows only two copies in the US (Harvard and U. Penn) – apparently none in the National Library of Medicine.