X. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 



115 



livers in an advanced stage of the lesion. These are more comparable to 

 those usually seen in human alcoholics at autopsy than are the earlier 

 stages of experimental cirrhosis. It is evident that conclusions concerning 

 the nature of the lesions in the two conditions should be based only on 

 comparisons of material at similar stages in their development. Early cases 

 of alcoholic cirrhosis in man are not encountered at autopsy freciuently 



Fig. 13. Thick (lUU m) cleared slice of the liver of a rat injected with India ink at 

 the time of sacrifice. In the center of the field is a large conrhicling (see text) branch 

 of the portal vein, and to the right is a small branch of the hepatic artery. Note that 

 the surrounding sinusoids do not communicate with this large vein. The white arrow 

 in the lower left corner points to a small distributing (see te.xt) branch of the portal 

 vein which is breaking up into sinusoids. X25(). 



enough to permit careful comparison with l)eginning fibrosis in choline-defi- 

 cient rats. The fallacy of comparing early phases of cirrhosis in rats (non- 

 portal) with late phases in alcoholics (portal) is demonstrated by the fact 

 that late phases e\'en in the rats were described as portal by expert patho- 

 logists when material from this stage only was available. Though it is well 

 established that the distribution of the initial lesions in rats is non-portal, 

 this should not be taken as evidence that experimental cirrhosis differs 

 fmulamentally from that in man, initil it is possilile to conduct ecjually 

 complete and iiiteiisi\'e studies of the early stages of cin-hosis in man. 

 Several (|uestioiis arise from the foregoing. How does it happen that 



