NODULAR NECROSING HEPATITIS. 



281 



Isolated tracts of the liver become inflamed, between which the rest of 

 the tissue preserves its normal character ; the parts affected appear to 

 undergo complete degeneration, the cause of which is difficult to 

 explain. On examining affected animals after death, the liver is found 

 to be greatly enlarged, and apparently invaded by multiple tumours. On 

 section, the parenchyma generally is of normal colour, but' the diseased 

 parts are represented by dirty greyish-yellow tissue of a lardaceous 

 character, somewhat resistant to the knife. 



The affected spots vary in size, between that of a lentil or hazel nut 

 and an egg, and are formed of necrotic tissue. 



The periphery is the seat of true chronic fibro-plastic inflammation. 



Causation. According to Stabbe, these lesions are produced by 

 microbes, originating -in the intestines, and carried to the liver by the 



Fig. 121. — Appearance of the liver in necrosing hepatitis 



mesenteric veins. The lesions and blood of the liver yield cultures of a 

 microbe resembling that of necrosis ; nevertheless, such lesions have not 

 been experimentally reproduced. 



According to Berndt, infection from the uterus is possible, and indeed 

 probable. Moussu has only seen three cases of this particular condition 

 of the liver in living animals. Two of these were in a working ox and a 

 bull respectively, so that Berndt's view would not seem to be exclusively 

 applicable. Moussu is convinced that infection is of intestinal origin, 

 and that it takes place through the mesenteric veins ; he claims to 

 have found the proof of this in the existence of multiple pylephlebitis 

 and complete obliteration of the subhepatic veins in some cases. 



Symptoms. The symptoms are so vague as to render diagnosis diffi- 

 cult. Berndt, on the other hand, regards it as fairly easy. He states 



