5o8 Vetermary Mediciyie. 



In ruminants the lesion is often circumscribed to tlie areas that 

 hav^e undergone compression by tumors or parasites (echinococ- 

 cus,* actinomycosis), and there may be compensatory increase 

 elsewhere in the organ. 



In siviiie, dogs and cats the same conditions are operative. In 

 all alike perihepatitis may be a causative factor, and sclerosis 

 (cirrhosis), with contraction of the fibrous hyperplasia may also 

 operate. 



Symptoms are very obscure and treatment unsatisfactory unless 

 the active causes can be recognized and arrested. 



HEPATIC STEATOSIS. FATTY LIVER. FATTY 

 DEGENERATION. 



The presence of oil globules in the liver cells is normal and 

 physiological, the liver acting to a certain extent as a storehouse 

 for fat. This is always a marked feature, in healthy animals on 

 high rations, and taking little or no work, but so long as the 

 protoplasm and nuclei of the cells retain the normal characters 

 and functions the condition is not a morbid one. It ma}', however, 

 become excessive, with great enlargement of the liver, and with 

 the substitution of fatty granules for the protoplasm of the cells 

 as in ducks and geese subjected to forced feeding, and the condi- 

 tion becomes a distinctly' pathological one. 



In true fatty degeneration the protoplasm of the hepatic cells 

 is destroyed and replaced hy fatty graiuiles, the resulting condi- 

 tion being a permanent destruction of the cell for physiological 

 uses. 



Ca7(ses. The liver cells undergo fatty degeneration under the 

 action of certain poisons like phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, 

 lead, phenol, iodoform and alcohol. According to Neyraud 

 oxide of antimony is given daily to fattening geese to hasten the 

 development of fattv liver. 



An excess of fatty elements in the food leads to the same re- 

 sult as shown first by Majendie in dogs, in which not only did 

 the liver undergo tliis degeneration but the sebaceous glands of 

 the skin secreted an excess of volatile fatty acids. 



