86 CAUSES OF ACUTE ATROPHY. 



complication in two instances. Acute Wasting of the 

 I Jver in pregnant women may be recognized by the fact 

 that it is almost invariably accompanied by fatty de- 

 generation of the kidneys. 



As regards age, the majority of those attacked with 

 the disease are under the middle epoch of life. Of 31 

 cases collected by Frerichs there were 



6 between 10 and 20 years of age. 

 20 20 30 

 3 30 40 

 2 40 60 



CAUSES. The circumstances under which Acute 

 Atrophy of the Liver occurs, constitute a very interest- 

 in- part of its clinical h i story ; these causes, however, 

 still require further invest Ration, as inanv are, as set 

 down by various authors, of an obscure nature. The 

 most prominent, however, hitherto known are nervous 

 influences, such as a severe iri.u'ht or a sudden outburst 

 of passion. Sir Thomas Watson, in his cl :ures 



on the practice of medicine, states that scores of in- 

 stances are on record win-re jaundi ienly 

 appeared under such circumstances ; and that such , 

 are often fatal, with head symptoms, con v. deli- 

 rium or coma, &c., supervening upon such jaundice. 

 Similar CaSCfl have likev. .nucli 

 older writers, namely, Vercelloni, Moi-a-ni, J'.allonius, 

 and others. That a sudden " outburst of pasM..n " may 

 act as an exciting cause of " Acute Atrophy of the Li . 

 the writer has no moral doubt whatever, -e of 

 the kind occurred in his own practice about six \ 

 ago. The patient was a short, thin, wiry-looking 

 woman, about thirty-live years old, and the mother of 



