THE LIVER 233 
inflammation, biliary cirehoses. The effects of this are to 
dam back bile with the production of varying degrees of 
jaundice and for the inflammation to spread into the 
lobules, thus distorting their internal architecture; this 
form is therefore unlike portal cirrhosis which alters the 
size and shape of lobules as a whole. Fatty change is 
very prominent in certain cases and it has been a custom, 
perhaps without warrant, to put such livers into a 
separate group. It may be that they represent a different 
chemical process. When there exists for a long time a 
venous stasis in the liver, necrosis is apt to occur in the 
cells subjected to pressure and the absence of fresh blood. 
This gives rise to a " nutmeg " liver upon which may 
succeed a definite perivenous fibrosis. 
This then is a working classification of the hepatic 
cirrhoses. Perhaps many slightly differing varieties 
might be constructed but tjiis grouping will permit com- 
parison and contrast with human cases, and with instances 
in the various orders. Because of the relatively small 
total, thirty-two, it is perhaps unwise to attempt any con- 
clusions as to distribution but it is certainly noteworthy 
that twenty-six occurred in mammals. This means 1.6 
per cent, in mammalian autopsies against .2 per cent, in 
avian. Among the former class the carnivores stand at 
the head of the list, followed in order by the marsupials, 
ungulates, primates, and rodents. 
Carnivora have shown a few typical portal cirrhoses 
from a pathological standpoint but only one, in a badger 
(Taxidea taxus), was combined with the classical picture 
of intestinal hyperemia and ascites. Two of the cases were 
combined with chronic enteritis which may, of course, 
have been secondary but there was also a hyperplasia of 
the spleen which bespoke some grade of infection. None 
of the four showed involvement of the biliary tract. One 
animal, a skunk {Mephitis mesomelas), was jaundiced; 
it had anemia, nephritis and enlarged spleen but no 
intestinal inflammation; perhaps the associated anemia 
16 
