DISEASES OF THE LIVER

Abstract

Progress in the science of medicine is dependent on the development of knowledge concerning anatomic and physiologic conditions in health and the disturbances in disease. Each advance, whether in the field of pathologic anatomy or of pathologic physiology, has made possible a better understanding qualitatively and quantitatively of the abnormal process, thus permitting more accurate diagnosis, more exact prognosis, and more rational therapeusis. As details of the mechanisms controlling normal physiologic activity have come to light, attention has been more directly focused on the changes produced in these mechanisms by disease, and in recent years functional changes have been sought with as great, if not greater, interest than anatomic changes. Exact criteria regarding disturbances of function are not readily delimited. In too many conditions morbid anatomy, valuable as it unquestionably is, has been the only index available to physiologic changes. Recent improvements in biochemical methods, and consequently in our knowledge