242 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 3 OO. 
suicidal poisoning by phosphorus, in which death took place on the 
seventh day, the liver was very carefully examined by Dr G. F. Goodart, 
who reported as follows :— 
“ Under a low power the structure of the liver is still readily recognisable, and in 
this the specimen differs from slides of three cases of acute yellow atrophy that I 
have in my possession. The hepatic cells are present in large numbers, and have 
their natural trabecular arrangement. The columns are abnormally separated by 
dilated blood or lymph-spaces, and the individual cells are cloudy and ill-defined. 
The portal channels are everywhere characterised by a crowd of small nuclei which 
stain with logwood deeply. The epithelium of the smaller ducts is cloudy, and 
blocks the tubes in many cases. Under a high power (one-fifth) it is seen that the 
hepatic cells are exceedingly ill-defined in outline, and full of granules and even 
drops of oil. But in many parts, even where the cells themselves are hazy, the 
nucleus is still fairly visible. It appears to me that, in opposition to what others 
have described, the nuclei of the cells have in great measure resisted the degenera¬ 
tive process. The change in the cells is uniform throughout each lobule, but some 
lobules are rather more affected than others. The blood-spaces between the cells are 
empty, and the liver appears to be very bloodless. The portal canals are uniformly 
studded with small round nuclei or cells, which are in part, and might be said in 
great part, due to increase of the connective tissue or to a cirrhotic process. But I 
am more disposed to favour the view that they are due to migration from the blood¬ 
vessels, because they are so uniform in size, and the hepatic cells and connective 
tissue in their neighbourhood are undergoing no changes in the way of growth what¬ 
ever. I cannot detect any fatty changes in the vessels, but some of the smaller 
biliary ducts contain some cloudy albuminous material, and their nucleation is not 
distinct. No retained biliary pigment is visible.” 1 
Oscar Wyss, 2 in the case of a woman 23 years old, who died 
on the fifth day after taking phosphorus, describes, in addition to the 
fatty appearance of the cells, a new formation of cells lying between 
the lobules and in part surrounding the gall-ducts and the branches of 
the portal vein and hepatic artery. 
Salkowsky 3 found in animals, which he killed a few hours after 
administering to them toxic doses of phosphorus, notable hypersemia 
of the throat, intestine, liver, and kidneys—both the latter organs 
being larger than usual. The liver cells were swollen, and the nuclei 
very evident, but they contained no fat, fatty drops being formed 
afterwards. 
§ 300. The kidneys exhibit alterations very similar and analogous to 
those of the liver. They are mostly enlarged, congested, and flabby, 
with extravasations under the capsule, and show microscopic changes 
essentially consisting in a fatty degeneration of the epithelium. In 
cases attended with haemorrhage, the tubuli may be here and there 
filled with blood. The fatty epithelium is especially seen in the con¬ 
torted tubes, and the walls of the vessels, both of the capsule and of 
the Malpighian bodies, also undergo the same fatty change. In cases 
in which death has occurred rapidly, the kidneys have been found almost 
! . A Rocent Case °f Suicide,” by Herbert J. Capon, M.D., Lancet, March 18, 1882. 
2 Virchow's Archivf. path. Anat., Bd. xxxiii. Hft. 3, S. 432, 1865. 
3 Ibid., Bd. xxxiv. Hft. 1 u. 2, S. 73, 1865. 
