Experimental Cirrhosis of the Liver. 57 



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Experimental cirrhosis of the liver. 



By EUGENE L. OPIE. 



[From the Laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical 

 Research, New York.~\ 



Administration of chloroform by inhalation prolonged during 

 one or more hours produces necrosis implicating the central part 

 of the liver lobule. When recovery follows, connective tissue does 

 not replace the destroyed parenchyma. By removing bits of liver 

 tissue shortly after prolonged chloroform anesthesia Whipple has 

 recently shown that necrosis destroying from one third to three 

 fifths of the liver lobule rapidly undergoes repair so that at the end 

 of three weeks the organ has returned to normal. 



Herter and Williams have produced well marked cirrhosis by 

 inhalation of chloroform repeated during several weeks. The fol- 

 lowing experiments are described because they show that advanced 

 cirrhosis with portal obstruction may be produced in dogs by 

 repeated administration of chloroform by mouth ; that two different 

 lesions may be produced by the same substance. 



One animal received thirty-three times 6.25 c.c. of chloroform 

 in oil, doses being given on three succeeding days, followed by an 

 interval of three days. The veins over the abdomen became 

 markedly distended and there was jaundice. The animal died at 

 the end of two months. The veins of the portal system were 

 widely dilated, the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract was 

 congested and the peritoneal cavity contained a small amount of 

 fluid. The liver was small and mottled with yellow and gray. 

 Microscopical examination shows that about one third of the liver 

 substance consists of newly formed cellular connective tissue, 

 in which are numerous proliferated bile ducts. The liver 

 parenchyma is in process of regeneration ; mitotic figures occur 

 and the columns of liver cells have assumed a tubular form with 

 nuclei regularly arranged at the edges of the columns. 



A second animal received twenty-one times 20 c.c. of 

 chloroform. The doses were repeated on three succeeding days, 

 followed by an interval of six days. The abdominal veins 



