TREATMENT ALLOPATHIC. 91 



of the membrane of the brain, the lungs, and peritoneal 

 covering, which, when associated with jaundice and 

 delirium, present a train of phenomena very similar to 

 Acute Hepatitis, but which, however, can be easily 

 distinguished by a careful examination of the individual 

 organs. 



The morbid phenomena exhibited in the liver itself 

 are of greater importance in diagnosis, "not so much, 

 however, in the tenderness of the organ, which in some 

 cases is more or less absent, or but slightly felt/ but in 

 the marvellous rapidity by which the organ is dimin- 

 ished in volume until all dulness on percussion entirely 

 disappears. Of equal diagnostic value are the changes 

 which take place in the urine viz., the almost total 

 disappearance of urea and uric acid, and the deposition 

 of sediments of tyrosine and leurine, and the vomiting 

 of blood, which have invariably been met with as 

 prominent symptoms of Acute Atrophy of the Liver. 



TKKATMKNT. AllnjHithi'-iilly. The mode of treat- 

 ment adopted by those pliv>iri;uis who have hitherto 

 encountered Acute Atrophy of the Liver has been any- 

 thing but satisfactory. Still there are a few well 

 authenticated cases on record, where patients have 

 recovered even after falling into a condition bordering 

 on coma. "In Acute Atrophy of the Liver/' says 

 Murchison, " nil treatment has hitherto proved unsatis- 

 factory." " The results of treatment hitherto recorded," 

 Frerichs, " are of a hopeless character ; hence no 

 approved empirical method exists." According to 

 Corrigan, of Dublin, the progress of the disease is 

 arrested by emetics; according to Griffin, of Limerick, 

 and Hanlou, of Porturliugtoii, by drastic purgatives j 



