ACUTE YELLOW ATROPHY OF THE LIVER 553 



cially reduced; but no such change was found by him in acute yellow 

 atrophy, nor by Wells in chloroform necrosis. Jackson and Pearce'^ 

 found an increase in the diamino nitrogen with extensive necrosis of 

 the liver in dogs and horses. Wohlgemuth'^'* found arginine in the urine 

 in phosphorus poisoning. The lecithin of the liver is also decreased 

 (Heffter'^ and Wells), and the increase in P2O6 observed in the urine 

 presumably comes partly from this source; cholesterol is unchanged. 

 Beebe^*^ found the pentose of the liver not greatly altered from the 

 normal relations. The typical idiopathic atrophied liver shows little 

 or no increase in fat, either chemically or microscopically, whereas there 

 is considerable replacement of the lost liver substance by water, as 

 shown in the following table: 



Fat-free 

 Dried 

 Water Fat Substance 



Normal liver (Quincke) 76.1 3.0 20.9 



Normal liver (Wells) 77.6 5.0 17.4 



Acute atrophv (Perls) 81.6 8.7 9.7 



Acute at rophv (Perls) 76.9 7.6 15.5 



Acute atrophv (v. Starck) 80 . 5 4.2 15.5 



Acute atrophy (Taylor) 85 . 8 2.0 12.2 



Acute atrophy (Wakeman) 79.3 ... .... 



Acute atrophy (Wells) 83 . 8 2.5 13.7 



Acute atrophy (Voegtlin) 78 . 6.6 15.4 



Phosphorus poisoning (v. Starck) 60.0 29.8 10.0 



Fatty degeneration (v. Starck) 64 . 25 . 11.0 



Chloroform necrosis (Wells) 72 . 4 8.8 18.8 



Similar results have been obtained frequently by other observers, 

 Taylor estimating that in his case about three-fourths of the liver 

 parenchyma had disappeared. The yellow color of the liver tissue 

 characteristic of this condition seems to be due to bilirubin rather 

 than to fat, because as soon as the tissues are put into oxidizing agents 

 (e. g., dichromate hardening fluids) they turn grass-green from the oxi- 

 dation of the bilirubin into biliverdin. There seems to be a marked 

 increase in free fatty acids, probably the unsaturated higher fatty 

 acids, which are strongly hemolytic.^'' Glycogen is greatly reduced 

 in phosphorous and chloroform poisoning, and presumably in acute 

 yellow atrophy. 



Jacoby^^ found that the livers from phosphorus-poisoned dogs 

 underwent autolysis with greater rapidity than normal livers, which 

 was. attributed to increased activity or amount of the autolytic en- 

 zymes, although addition of phosphorus to a solution containing liver 

 ferments was not found to increase their activity. The aldehydase 

 w^as not found decreased, and tyrosinase could not be demonstrated, 



" Jour. Exper. Med., 1907 (9), 520. 

 3< Zeit. phvsiol. Chem., 1905 (44), 74. 

 3^ Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1891 (28), 97. 

 36 Amer. Jour, of Phvsiol., 1905 (14), 237. 

 " Joannovics and Pick, Berl. klin. Woch., 1910 (47), 928. 



38 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1900 (30), 174; see also Porges and Pribram, Arch, 

 e.xp. Path. u. Pharm., 1908 (59), 20. 



