HEPATIC STEATOSIS. FATTY UVER. FATTY 

 DEGENERATION. 



The presence of oil globules in the liver cells is normal and 

 physiological, the liver acting to a certain extent as a storehouse 

 for fat. This is always a marked feature, in healthy animals on 

 high rations, and taking little or no work, but so long as the 

 protoplasm and nuclei of the cells retain the normal characters 

 and functions the condition is not a morbid one. It may, however, 

 become excessive, with great enlargement of the liver, and with 

 the substitution of fatty granules for the protoplasm of the cells 

 as in ducks and geese subjected to forced feeding, and the con- 

 dition becomes a distinctly pathological one. 



In true fatty degeneration the protoplasm of the hepatic cells 

 is destroyed and replaced by fatty granules, the resulting condi- 

 tion being a permanent destruction of the cell for physiological 

 uses. 



Causes. The liver cells undergo fatty degeneration under the 

 action of certain poisons like phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, 

 lead, phenol, iodoform and alcohol. According to Neyraud 

 oxide of antimony is given daily to fattening geese to hasten the 

 development of fatty liver. 



An excess of fatty elements in the food leads to the same re- 

 sult as shown first by Majendie in dogs, in which not only did 

 the liver undergo this degeneration but the sebaceous glands of 

 the skin secreted an excess of volatile fatty acids. 



The cryptogams and their products on musty fodders determine 

 a gastro-enteritis in herbivora, accompanied by fatty degeneration 

 of the liver. 



Colchicum Autumnale, and poisonous yellow lupin both deter- 

 mine this degeneration. 



The products of a number of pathogenic bacteria have a simi- 

 lar effect. This has been noticed in the cat with bacillus pyocy- 

 aneus (Charrin), and in other animals with the cholera spirillum, 

 pyaemic and septicaemic infection, contagious pneumonia of the 

 horse, strangles, and ulcerative endocarditis. It has been long 

 noticed to be a complication of pulmonary tuberculosis, the result 



34 529 



