Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/124

104 they do not reach maturity, as shown by the power of reproduction, till the end of their third year. They usually measure about 3 feet in length, and weigh from 12 to 20 ft, but specimens have been taken from 50 to 70 tb in weight. As an article of food the cod-fish is in gre itest perfection during the three months preceding Christmas. It is caught on all parts of the British and Irish coasts; bat the Djgger Bank, and Rockall. off the Outer Hebrides, have been specially noted for their cod-fisheries. Until recently, the London market was in great part supplied from the former of these ; but now the fishery is chiefly carried on along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, where gre it quantities of the fish are caught with hook and line, and conveyed to market alive in &quot; well-boats &quot; specially built for this traffic. Such boats have been in use since the beginning of the 18th century. The most important cod- fishery in the world is that which has been prosecuted for centuries on the Newfoundland banks, where it is not uncommon for a single fisherman to take over 500 of these fish in 10 or 11 hours. The fish have lately been decreas ing in that well-worn locality, but that the yield is still enormous is seen from recently published returns, from which it appears that the quintity of cod obtained by the Canadian fishery alone in 1875 weighed over 31,000 tons, while in 1874 it reached 3i,500 tons. These, salted and dried, are exported to all parts of the world, and form, when taken in connection with the enormous quantity of fresh cod consumed, a valuable addition to the food resources of the human race. The swimming bladder of this fish furnishes isinglass, little, if at all, inferior to that obtained from the sturgeon, while from the liver is obtain 3d cod-liver oil, now lirgely used in medicine as a remedy in scrofulous complaints and pulmonary consumption. &quot; The Norwegians,&quot; says Cuvier, &quot; give cod heads with marine plants to their cows for the purpose of producing a greater proportion of milk. The vertebrae, the ribs, and the bones in general, are given to their cattle by the Icelanders, and by the Kamtchatdales to their dogs. These same parts, properly dried, are also employed as fuel in the desolate steppes of the Icy Se;i.&quot; At Port Logan in Wigtonshire cod-fish are kept in a large reservoir, scooped out of the eolid rook by the action of the sea, egress from which is prevented by a barrier of stones, which does not prevent the free access of the water. These cod are fed chiefly on mussels, and when the keeper approaches to feed them they may be seen rising to the surface in hundreds and eagerly seeking the edge. They have become comparatively tame and familiar. Frank Buckland, who some years ago visited the place, states that after a little while they allowed him to take hold of them, scratch them on the back, and play with them in various ways. Their flavour is considered superior to that of the cod taken in the open sea.  COD-LIVER OIL is an oil of great medicinal value, obtained from the liver of the common cod (Morrhua vid- &amp;lt;7Tm),and also to some extent from the ling (Lota molva), the whiting (Merlanyus vulgaris), the pollack (Merlanrjus polla- chius], as well as other members of the Gadidce. The oil ob tained from the livers differs in quality from a very pure pale-coloured liquid to a dark evil-smelling product, accord ing to the care exercised and the processes adopted for its extraction. The very dark coloured rank oils are used only for burning and lubricating, and in commerce are known as cod oil. The purer qualities, up to an oil having a brown sherry colour, are alone used medicinally as cod-liver oil. Various methods of extracting the oil are adopted in the different countries where its preparation is prosecuted. Generally it may be stated that the medicinal oil is obtained from selected livers, which are carefully examined, cleaned, split up, and thrown together into a large vessel! From these a very small proportion of a pure and almost colourless oil exudes spontaneously, and exposure to the heat of the sun causes a further exudation. By the application of heat in a steam or water bath to a tempera ture not exceeding 180 Fahr., a proportion of still pale, or straw-coloured oil is obtained. The oil which results from the application of a higher heat and pressure, and that obtained from imhealthy and from putrid livers, are only used industrially as cod oil. The extraction of the oil is most extensively prosecuted in Newfoundland and in Norway ; but a considerable quantity is also prepared in the Shetland Islands and along the east coast of Scotland. Three varieties of medicinal oil are recognized in com merce -pale, light brown, and brown ; but these insensibly merge into each other, and are only the result of different processes or periods of preparation, as mentioned above. The pale oil possesses a fishy odour and a slightly acrid taste, while with the darker oil there is a distinctly dis agreeable empyreumatic odour and taste. In composition the oil contains olein and margarin, with small proportions of free butyric and acetic acids, a peculiar principle termed gaduin, certain bile acids, free phosphorus, phosphatic salts, and traces of iodine and bromine. Cod-liver oil is valuable in medicine on account of its great nutrient properties ; it adds rapidly to tho store of fat within the human frame, and it enriches the blood in red corpuscles. It is much more digestible than other animal oils, a fact which may account for its superior therapeutic value. At one time it was supposed that its virtues resided in the iodine and bromine which the oil generally contains ; but these are present only in exceedingly minute proportions, and some times they cannot be traced at all. The oil has long been favourably known in medicine as a remedy for rheumatic complaints, but its great value in pulmonary consumption has been demonstrated only in comparatively recent times. It is administered internally in chronic rheumatism, scrofula, phthisis, chronic skin diseases, and general debility; and it is sometimes externally applied in affections of the skin. The oil is taken with facility by young children ; but the repugnance of adults to its taste and eructations is not easily overcome, and many methods have been suggested for masking its taste. With that view the oil is enclosed in gelatinous capsules, or prepared in the form of aromatized emulsions, of equal parts of mucilage, of gum tragacanth, and the oil. There are numerous other forms of emulsions recommended, as well as combinations with medicinal syrups, and cod-liver oil creams, jellies, and bread; and various devices are familiarly employed as in the adminis tration of unpleasant medicines. Failing all these, cod-liver oil has been introduced into the system by injection.  CODE. A code is a complete and systematic body of law, or a complete and exclusive statement of some portion of the law. Such, at least, is the sense in which the word is used when it is proposed to recast the laws of a country like England in the form of a code. Many collections of laws, however, which are commonly known as codes, would not correspond to this definition. The Code of Justinian, the most celebrated of all, is not in itself a complete and exclusive system of law. It is a collection of imperial constitutions, just as the Pandects are a collection of the opinions of jurisconsults. The Code and the Pandects together being, as Austin says, &quot; digests of Roman law in force at the time of their conception,&quot; would, if properly arranged, constitute a code. Codification in this sense is merely a question of the form of the laws, and has nothing to do with their goodness or badness from an ethical or poUtical point of view. Sometimes codification only means the changing of unwritten into written law ; in the stricter sense it means the changing of unwritten or bartiy written law into law well written.

Roman Codes.—Under the empire the constitutions or 