STUDIES OF HEPATIC FUNCTION BY THE QUICK HIPPURIC ACID TEST

Abstract

When Pierson, cited by Robertson and his associates,¹ said some years ago that perhaps the greatest good that had come out of the search for adequate tests of hepatic function was the awakening of interest in the state of the liver, he probably did not himself realize how important his statement was, even though he went on to say that in this regard most physicians "have been asleep in Zion and are in need of a great revival." On all sides today are signs, though in some quarters they are faint indeed, of the beginning of that revival. Just as the patient with deficiencies of the cardiac, renal and respiratory apparatus has long been considered a poor operative risk, so is the patient with hepatic deficiency or insufficiency coming to be considered an equally poor, if not a poorer, risk. Our own interest in the problem was first aroused