DISTURBANCES OF HEPATIC FUNCTION 287 



diagnosis of the condition of the liver in the living patient. 

 From the studies of E. Bauer, 51 of v. Neusser's Clinic, which 

 have met with confirmation from numerous sources, 52 an 

 alimentary galactosuria seems to always afford a limited 

 possibility of testing the hepatic function. While a sound 

 liver is able to handle almost all of the galactose, when from 

 30 to 40 grams of this sugar are administered, in certain 

 disturbances of the hepatic function an appreciable por- 

 tion of it tends to appear in the urine. Acording to Bauer 

 the test is positive in the various cirrhoses of the liver, 

 in catarrhal jaundice, in phosphorus poisoning, acute yel- 

 low atrophy, and the fatty liver of tuberculosis; but in 

 passive hyperaemia of the liver, in cholelithiasis, cancers, 

 tumors, echinococcus disease and abscesses and in peri- 

 hepatic affections it is said to be negative, as well as in all 

 other affections in which the liver does not take part. How- 

 ever, there are exceptions to this rule. Thus alimentary 

 galactosuria is found in occasional cases of Basedow's dis- 

 ease, and was met in a case of paroxysmal tachycardia 

 recently under observation in Ortner's Clinic, which pre* 

 sented symptoms of vagotonia and sympathicotonia. 63 In 

 cases of this sort the alimentary galactosuria is apparently 

 associated with an alimentary glycosuria. 



Bierry succeeded in inducing experimentally an alimen- 

 tary galactosuria by producing severe lesions of the liver in 

 dogs by means of chloroform injections. Milk sugar in 

 dosage of one or two grains, easily utilized by a normal ani- 

 mal, caused in animals thus prepared an elimination of 

 galactose in the urine. 54 



81 R. Bauer, Wiener med. Wochenschr., 1906, 21, 2537; Deutsche med. 

 Wochenschr., 1908, No. 35; Wiener klin. Wochenschr., 1912, 939-941; cf. 

 Literature in the last. 



62 V. Reuss, Bondi and Konig, Neugebauer, Jehn and Reiss and others. 



63 H. Politzer (Ortner's Clinic, Vienna), Wiener klin. Wochenschr., 1912, 

 1303 ; cf. also E. Reiss and W. Jehn, R. Roubitschek ( Schwenkenbecher's Clinic, 

 Frankfurt a. M.), Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 108, 187, 225, 1912. 



64 H. Bierry, C. R. Soc. de Biol., 61, 204, 1906. 



