Hepatic Steatosis. 509 



The cryptogams and their products on musty fodders determine 

 a gastro-enteritis in lierbivora, accompanied by fatty degeneration 

 of the liver. 



Colchicum Autumnale, and poisonous yellow lupin both deter- 

 mine this degeneration. 



The products of a number of pathogenic bacteria have a simi- 

 lar effect. This has been noticed in the cat with bacillus pyocy- 

 aneus (Charrin), the cholera spirillum, pygemic and septi- 

 caemic infection, contagious pneumonia of the horse, stran- 

 gles, and ulcerative endocarditis. It has been long noticed to 

 be a complication of pulmonar}' tuberculosis, the result in this as 

 in other affections of the lungs having been attributed to lessened 

 oxidation in the tissues. It occurs also in haemorrhages, rupt- 

 ures and inflammations of the liver and in passive congestions of 

 the organ, the impairment of the normal functions (in the altered 

 conditions of nutrition, or under the influence of poisons, ) proving 

 an important factor in the process. The same remark may apply 

 to the fatty degeneration which complicates most other liver dis- 

 eases, cirrhosis, catarrh of the bile ducts, distomatosis, echinococ- 

 cus, carcinoma, and epithelioma. 



Certain other factors must be taken into account. The inheri- 

 ted disposition to the production of fat which characterizes the 

 improved breeds of butcher animals, and particular individuals of 

 all breeds, mature age which predisposes to the deposit of fat in 

 internal organs, old age which lessens the vitality of the cells, and 

 hot, damp climates or stables, all operate more or less in deter- 

 mining the fatty change. 



Lesions. In fatty degeneration the liver is enlarged, pale, 

 bloodless, yellowish, its cut surface exudes an oily fluid which 

 smears the knife, and it is so light that it floats on water. If 

 scraped and the material drawn across a sheet of paper it forms a 

 transparent oily stain. Under the microscope the liver cells are 

 .seen to be enlarged and to have their protoplasm and nuclei re- 

 placed by fat or oil. If due to obstruction in the heart or lungs 

 the degeneration is greatest toward the centre of the acinus, if due 

 to an infectious disease it is usually greatest towards its periph- 

 ery. In infectious diseases too the liver is not pale yellow, but 

 usually of a deep brownish or yellowish red. The degeneration 

 may be local or general. McFadyean found a circumscribed 



