This oil has been proved by the experience of many physicians to be a medicine of great utility in most cases in which there is a general deficiency of fat in the system. It is thought also to exert a specific action in the cure of pulmonary Phthisis, and it certainly appears to be the only medicine that possesses any marked or peculiar power over the progress of this disorder. When administered in favourable cases it seems not only to have the power of fattening the patient, but to be able also to combat and cure the disease itself, arresting or retarding the tubercular deposit. Sometimes it is unable to do this; but in all cases of consumption a trial should at least be given to it. It is of most service when the disease is only incipient, and, if given in the first stage, may often prevent its further progress; but it may even cure patients in whom the deposit has passed the stage of softening, as appears from the reports of the Brompton Hospital. It is also of use in Scrofula, in chronic Rheumatism, and in cases of emaciation generally. It may prove nutritive in Diabetes mellitus, because it is not likely to be converted into sugar in the system, whereas in that disorder all kinds of food, excepting fats and oils, are liable to this change. Cod-liver oil is assimilated to the tissues, and there seems to be something in it which not only renders it more easy to assimilate than other oils, but which further endows it with a special influence over tuberculous diseases. It does not appear that any other oils are equally effective. Though Dr. Duncan and Mr. Nunn have recommended Almond-oil instead of Cod-liver oil, yet the general experience of others is decidedly against such a substitution. It has not yet been clearly ascertained to which of the constituents of this oil its valuable properties are owing. Being itself an animal product, it is for that reason more easy of assimilation than a vegetable oil. Many have attributed its virtues to Iodine, of which, according to De Jongh, it contains 29 parts in 100,000.