X. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 



107 



niid fibrotic livers freciiiently associated with obesity'-^ should he included 

 ill this category. Cases of gross obesity induced by chronic o\'erindulgence 

 in candy, desserts, and starchy foods are possibly due to a lowered 

 choline/calorie ratio, but dietary histories are too inadequate to warrant 

 more than a suggestion at present. Investigators are hampered by the fact 

 that the glutton, like the drunkard, is frequently untruthful about his habit- 

 ual overindulgence. 



The hypothesis that alcoholic cirrhosis in man is the clinical counterpart 



Fig. 7. Gross appearance of the liver of a man aged 39 years who had been ad- 

 dicted to alcohol for several years before his death. If one allows for the differ- 

 ence in size of this liver and that illustrated in Fig. 6, the characteristics of the cir- 

 rhotic lesions are remarkablv similar. 



of cirrhosis in choline-deficient animals might be less tenable if the histo- 

 pathology of the two conditions were not essentially identical. The gross 

 appearances of the livers are certainly remarkably similar (Figs. 6 and 7), 

 but, although this is accepted by all investigators, there is lack of agreement 

 concerning the similarity of the microscopic characteristics. It has been 

 stated*^^ that "This peculiar experimental hepatic cirrhosis of rats has no 

 counterpart in the usually described varieties of hepatic cirrhosis in man," 



^" S. Sherlock, A. G. Beam, and B. Billing, Trans. 10th ConJ. Liver Injury, New York 



pp. 205-262 (1951). 

 «6 R. D. Lillie, L. L. Ashburn, W. H. Sebrell, F. S. Daft, and J. V. Lowry, PiM. 



Health Repts. (U.S.) 57, 502-508 (1942). 



