Pathological changes in chronic alcoholism / by Lewis D. Mason.

  • Mason, Lewis D. (Lewis Duncan), 1843-1927.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological changes in chronic alcoholism / by Lewis D. Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    in a state of intoxication. These are less frequent in animals, and this is the reason why pachy-meningitis due to the prolonged action of alcohol is rarer in animals than in man. Magnan. — That in dogs, even at the end of two months of alco- holic poisoning, the liver undergoes fatty degeneration. A micro- scopic section shows the cells have lost form, are swollen, round, infiltrated with granules and drops of fat. M. P/upier notes the effect on a fowl to which absinthe had been given as a drink ten months. The liver is hard, resistant, lessened in volume, has irregularities on its two surfaces, numerous whitish de- pressions, the intermediate parts of a reddish brown color. The microscope shows dilatation of vessels at periphery of lobules, filled with granules; extreme compression and degeneration of hepatic cells. In another experiment a fowl was subjected to the action of red wine for ten months. The liver is of a clear yellow color, soft, pasty, and oils the blade of the scalpel. Microscope shows cells enlarged and rounder than normal, filled with- granules resembling those in parenchymatous inflammation at its beginning; here and there large fat drops. A fowl was given white wine under similar conditions. The liver is of good color, but is shriveled on its lower surface and bor- ders. Microscope shows dilatation of vessels, which appear three or four times the normal size when compared with the cells which have undergone atrophic degeneration. A rabbit was subjected to alcohol. The liver shows nothing as regards capillary net-work; the cells are altered and contain two or three nuclei; around bile ducts there is an increase of connective-tissue nuclei. M. P/upier concludes that absin- the affects primarily the stroma without producing new connective tissue or sclerosis of walls of vessels. This marked new growth has not been confirmed. As for red and white wine and alcohol, their injurious effect is seen rather in the plasma and hepatic paren- chyma. Alcohol would seem to produce hepatic steatosis, but not to the exclusion of sclerosis. A prolonged period of alcoholic intoxication, and consequent irri- tation, might provoke sclerosis. In the same animal, with fatty degener- ation of liver, are found irritative lesions, such as pachymeningitis, sclerosis of posterior columns of spinal cord, thickening and opacity of arachnoid and pia mater, milky patches in pericardium—all these at the same time. The kidneys, like the liver, undergo beginning fatty degeneration. The surface is smooth'and even ; the cortical substance and prolonga- tion between the pyramids of Malphigi show a well-marked yellowish tint, with small striations of a deeper color. The microscope shows tubuli slightly swollen, cloudy, filled with granular and fatty epithe- lium.