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Article: Cod liver oil and Charles Fox. (Chemical History)
- Article from:
- Chemistry and Industry
- Article date:
- May 16, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Society of Chemical Industry. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The words 'cod liver oil' usually bring back unpleasant memories to those who once took it by the spoonful. While the oil had been used for centuries for the preparation of leather, it also had widespread usage as a folk remedy for arthritis and gout, and as a spring tonic among fisher families in Norway, Iceland and Scotland, and later in Newfoundland.
Eventually, physicians at the Manchester Infirmary tried it clinically, with considerable success, from the 1770s on. Word spread, but the publication in 1841 of 'Treatise on the Oleum Jecoris Aselli or Cod Liver Oil as a therapeutic agent in certain forms of gout, rheumatism and scrofula' by John Hughes Bennett ...