CHEMICAL CHANGES OF ACUTE YELLOW ATROPHY 449 



from this source. Beebe * found the pentose of the liver not 

 greatly altered from the normal relations. The typical idio- 

 pathic 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 2 : 



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 oxidation of the bilirubin into 

 biliverdin. 



Jacoby 3 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 enzymes, although addition of phosphorus to a solu- 

 tion containing liver ferments was not found to increase their 

 activity. The aldehydase was not found decreased, and tyro- 

 sinase could not be demonstrated. 



The Blood. In the blood marked changes are found, one 

 of the most prominent, besides the icterus, being the decreased 

 coagulability of the blood. This seems due to a loss of fibrin- 

 ogen, which, with the globulin, is greatly decreased, the albu- 

 min remaining less altered. 4 The fibrin-ferment also seems to 

 be decreased. These changes may be due to direct autolysis of 

 the blood constituents (Jacoby having found that thrombi 

 become rapidly dissolved in phosphorus-poisoning) or to the 

 changes in the liver. The icterus depends apparently upon 



J Amer. Jour, of Physiol., 1905 (14), 237. 



2 From Quincke, Nothnagel's System, 1899, vol. 18, p. 297. 



3 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1900 (30), 174. 



* Jacoby, loc. cit. ; see also Doyon, Compt. Rend. Soc. BioL, 1905 (58), 493. 



