The Internal Secretion of the Liver 

 and Its Disorders 



CHARLES W. HOOPEK 



NEW YORK 



Introduction Significance of the Liver in the 

 Body Economy 



The progress of experimental methods has fully demonstrated the 

 great importance of the liver both as a gland of internal secretion and as a 

 protective organ against injurious metabolites and extraneous poisons. 

 The liver is an immense fort stationed between the portal and systemic 

 circulations ready for service in any emergency. It withstands attack and 

 injury and restores itself with astounding rapidity. Prolonged chloro- 

 form anesthesia may destroy one-half or more of the liver parenchyma in 

 every lobule and yet, under favorable conditions, the liver may undergo 

 complete repair in from eight to ten days. Davis, Hall, and Whipple 

 (1919) estimate that the human liver, after severe chloroform injury, 

 followed by a carbohydrate rich diet, is capable of constructing a mass of 

 liver cells, 100 to 150 gm. every twenty-four hours, equal in size to the 

 normal spleen or kidney. 



The liver contains an abundance of active tissue. However, the 

 generally accepted view, based on Ponfick's observations (1889-90), that 

 one-fourth the liver mass contains sufficient parenchyma for normal re- 

 quirements is not conclusive in the light, of later experiments. Von 

 Meister (1894) found that, after partial ablation of the liver in rabbits, 

 the remaining liver mass attains the weight of the whole liver in from 

 forty-five to sixty days. Ponfick (1895) demonstrated that this compen- 

 sating hypertrophy begins within three days. Rous and Larimore (1920 ) 

 observed in rabbits that the liver atrophy following the occlusion of portal 

 branches of a part of the liver is dependent upon a compensatory hyper- 

 trophy of the remaining hepatic tissue. They state that three-fourths of 

 the liver may be reduced to a fibrous tag within three months, during 

 which time the remaining fourth may attain the bulk of the entire 

 organ. 



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