MEDICAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY 345 



Medical Miceoscopical Society. 



IPriday, IQtJi May, 1876. 



Dr. E. Payne, President, in the Chair. 



Scirrliosis of Liver in a Child. — Mr. Needham communicated 

 the particulars of a case, and showed specimens both of the liver 

 and other organs. The child, set. six years, was admitted as 

 a patient in the North Eastern Hospital, Hackney Eoad, on June 

 23rd, 1875. Her antecedents were good and the child's health 

 had never suffered till lately, when she was observed to be losing 

 flesh, and six days before admission her abdomen began to swell. 

 She had always been well taken care of and had never taken 

 spirits in any form. In July the abdomen was tapped, but soon 

 again refilled ; 42 oz. of fluid were removed. The child rallied 

 and returned home, but was readmitted in December, 1875, 

 much worse, suflering from attacks of epistaxis and hsemate- 

 mesis ; and in January, 1876, she died in convulsions after having 

 vomited a quantity of coff"ee-ground material. Post-mortem ex- 

 amination showed the liver to be " hobnailed," indurated and 

 weighing 19|- oz. It was uniformly straw-coloured, no puckering 

 of Glisson's capsule, and a section appeared fleshy, intersected 

 with bands of a tough material ; spleen firm, 6 oz. in weight. 

 Other organs healthy, but anaemic. Stomach contained food and 

 streaks of blood, but the source of the hsematemesis could not 

 be found. 



A section of the liver showed with the microscope liver struc- 

 ture cut ofi" into island glands of connective tissue, in which 

 were elongated cells that readily were stained with carmine ; and 

 besides these, dotted about, and easily stained, were very many 

 round cells, like white blood-corpuscles, to which they seemed 

 more related than to the long cells above mentioned. The liver 

 cells were often confused with this new growth and were under- 

 going fatty degeneration in some places. Glisson's capsule was 

 healthy and had taken no part in the process. The kidneys 

 showed proliferation of connective tissue, as did also the spleen : 

 and between the gastric tubes in the stomach was much of the 

 small cell-growth, such as was seen in the liver. 



The various organs had been prepared with chromate of 

 ammonium and also with spirit, and had been stained in various 

 ways, but the same appearances always presented themselves. 

 In between the muscular fibres of the heart, and in the brain, 

 especially about the blood-vessels, the same small cell-growth 

 could be well seen. 



The President had never heard of a case where the changes 

 were so universal. Similar conditions in the stomach and kidney 



