ROSENFELD ; S THEORY 417 



Fatty Infiltration in Other Pathological Conditions. 

 Whatever is true of the origin of the fatty liver in phos- 

 phorus poisoning seems, from all we know thereof, to be also 

 applicable in case of the fatty livers which follow poisoning 

 from arsenic, antimony, chloroform, alcohol and many other 

 poisons. There are many other pathological conditions in 

 which at times a typical fatty liver is met, as for example, 

 starvation, phloridzin diabetes and pancreatic diabetes 51 

 and overheating. (It was customary for a long time in 

 France in producing fatty livers in geese to confine them in 

 small, warm coops.) We have no substantial reason for 

 doubting that in such instances, as well as in the so-called 

 " liver of pregnancy, " 52 we are dealing with the phenomena 

 of typical fatty infiltration. 



Rosenf eld's Theory. Are we able to offer any explana- 

 tion for the fact that the same process, fatty infiltration of 

 the liver, is common to pathological conditions of the most 

 diverse type? G-. Eosenfeld, basing his views upon the fact 

 that in the different fatty livers due to intoxications the 

 organ is generally devoid of glycogen and that, for example, 

 in phloridzin intoxication the production of a fatty liver may 

 be inhibited by free administration of sugar, meat 53 and 

 other substances which go to form glycogen, has formulated 

 the following line of thought: "If cells are brought under 

 the influence of any sort of noxious agent . . . they in- 

 crease their resistive power by oxidation of every bit of 

 carbohydrate of which they may be possessed (for which rea- 

 son the liver of the animal with phosphorus poisoning is free 

 of glycogen) .... If there is no reserve material or an 

 amount insufficient to protect the cellular protein, the cells 

 take recourse to their last adjuvant; they attempt to re- 

 store their supplies for production of resistive power by 



61 H. Lattes, Arch. Scienze med. Torino, 33, cited in Jahresber. f . Tierchem., 

 40 } 816, 1910. 



62 J. Hofbauer (Konigsberg), Arch, f. Gynakol, 93, 405, 1909. 



63 G. Rosenfeld (Breslau), Berliner klin. Wochenschr., 47, 1268, 1910. 



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