On a probable danger from the Use of Cod-liver Oil. By Dr. Ben-
son.—At a recent meeting of the Surgical Society of Ireland, Dr. Benson
made the following statement regarding cod-liver oil:—
It was not to be expected that a remedy of so much power could be
used with impunity in all cases. Having such efficacy in checking
emaciation, in restoring the wasted flesh, and bringing back color to the
faded cheek, it might be anticipated that it would in some cases ol
phthisis occasion a congested condition of the lung, and even give a ten-
dency or prove a predisposing cause topneumonia; and this was, in fact,
what he thought he had observed in some instances, and it was to this In
begged to call the attention of the meeting.
It so happened that in almost every patient who died of phthisis
under his care while using cod-liver oil, he found the lung congested and
consolidated, not only in the neighbourhood of the tubercles, but through
nearly the entire of both lungs. This morbid condition, it is true, is
often met with where no oil has been used, but he was struck with ths
greater frequency of it in the post-mortems he had made where the oil
was freely administered. Dublin Med. Press.’)—Med. Gazette. Feb. 1,
1850, p. 216.