FATTY LIVER. 373 



come larger, swell up, and larger and smaller drops of fat 

 are found in them (Fig. 27, B, b), until, when filled to 

 the utmost, they present the same appearance as those 

 of adipose tissue ; scarcely any membrane, and scarcely 

 ever a nucleus is seen, nevertheless they both still con- 

 tinue to exist. This is the condition which is called fatty 

 liver, in the proper sense of the word. 



In it too we have what we found to be the case in adi- 

 pose tissue a persistence of the cells. There is no such 

 thing as a fatty liver in which the cells have ceased to 

 exist ; these constituents of the organs always exist, only 

 they are almost entirely filled with drops of fat instead 

 of with their ordinary contents. It can scarcely be 

 doubted but that even in this condition they still contain 

 a certain amount of matter capable of performing its 

 functions. For in many animals, as for example the 

 cod-fish from which liver-oil is obtained, the functions of 

 the organ are still performed, however large the quantity 

 of oil contained in the cells. In man too. even in the 

 most advanced stage of fatty liver, we still find bile in the 

 gall-bladder. So far therefore these conditions can in no 

 respect be compared to the necrobiotic conditions, which 

 are found in the course of fatty degeneration in so many 

 other parts, and in which the elements perish. In fatty 

 degeneration, in the ordinary sense of the word, we find, 

 in the later stages of the affection, somewhere or other, 

 friable, softened places, where the fat is contained in free 

 drops in some sort fatty abscesses. It is therefore a 

 fact of extreme importance, and one which I consider to 

 afford very decided indications for the correct apprecia- 

 tion of this form [fatty liver] , that in it there is always a 

 persistence of the histological constituents, and that, how- 

 ever" much these constituents may become filled with 

 foreign substances, they still continue to exist as cells. 

 Hence it follows, that a fatty condition of the liver may 



