CAUSES OF ACUTE ATROPHY. 89 



several cases of what appeared to have been undoubtedly 

 this disease occurred in the same house. 



5. The blood-poisons of typhus fever, the yellow 

 fever of the West Indies, and allied diseases have been 

 known to give rise to Acute Atrophy of the Liver. 

 " Jaundice," says Murchison, " is a very rare complication 

 of typhus, or scarlet fever, but in more than one instance 

 where it has occurred, crystals of leucine and tyrosine 

 have been found in the tissues of the liver and kidney by 

 me." Most writers on the" Typhus Icterodes," or yellow 

 fever of the tropics, have described fatty degeneration 

 of the liver as one of its most characteristic lesions ; 

 but hitherto none have pointed out the presence of 

 leucine or tyrosine, which, as Frerichs says, is 

 pathognomonic " only of acute wasting of that organ. 

 In 184-!, whilst in charge of 450 Portuguese emigrants, 

 which were transported from the charming island of 

 Madeira to British Guiana, I had ample opportunities, 

 whilst stopping at the latter place, of confirming the 



s set forth by writers on diseases of the tropics, that 

 fatty degeneration of the liver is commonly found in 

 those who have died of yellow fever. In addition to 

 the privilege of inspecting the public hospital of that 



:idcncy, which was situated in one of the outskirts 



Town, and surrounded by fine cocoa-nut^ 



b;i nana, and other tropical fruit trees, and watching for 



some days about thirty cases of yellow fever in its 



us gradations, from the remission of the mild, or 

 (JIM mon biliary, to the low typhoid state, and its black 

 vomit, I devoted some hours in carefully inspecting the 

 various " morbid specimens " deposited in the museum 

 attached to that institution, which were courteously 



