ETIOLOGY OF ACUTE ATROPHY. 85 



considered by him as the incipient stage of Acute 

 Atrophy. 



Bright attributed the disease to a diffuse inflammation 

 of the gland. Under the appellation of Hepatitis, these 

 views have since been enunciated by Engel, Wedl, and 

 Bambergen, who have accounted for the destruction of 

 the cells by a fatty degeneration, arising from an acute 

 exudative process. 



Frerichs coincides, to a great extent, with the views 

 propounded by Bright and his followers ; and although 

 not quite agreeing with their theory as to the destruc- 

 tion of the hepatic cells by fatty degeneration, yet he is 

 quite of opinion that an exudative process constitutes 

 the starting-point of the disease. 



ETIOLOGICALLY.* We are still very much in the dark 

 as to the real and precise mode of origin of Acute 

 Atrophy of the Liver. We can, therefore, in the meantime 

 only enumerate the various circumstances under which 

 so terrible and fatal a disorder makes its appearance. It 

 is, however, a well-established fact that females are 

 more prone to it than males ; as, out of 31 cases col- 

 lected by Bright and others, there were 9 men and 22 

 women, so that the number of the latter more thaa 

 doubled that of the former. Of the 22 females one-half 

 were attacked during pregnancy, consequently we are 

 justified in setting down sex and pregnancy as predis- 

 posing causes of no small import. Nevertheless Acute 

 Atrophy of the Liver is not by any means a disease of 

 daily occurrence even among pregnant women, as out of 

 33,000 cases recorded by Spaeth, he only found this 



* AiTia, cause, and Xoyof, a discourse. 



