PATHOLOGY OF CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM IN DISEASES OF THE LIVER

Abstract

At different periods the problem of the direct relationship between diseases of the liver and those of the brain has been prominent in clinical neurology. In the nineties of the last century, Leyden taught his idea of hepatogenous intoxication of the central nervous system. The French school of this time tried to give an experimental basis to these theories by injecting bile salts into animals and studying the toxic manifestations that followed. Under the leadership of Quincke, Hoppe-Seyler and Krehl, however, opposition arose against such a conception of "cholemia." They thought that a direct overflow of normal bile products was not responsible for the nervous disorders, but that the rôle of the liver as a detoxicator was severely disturbed. Accumulation of intermediary products of protein and carbohydrate metabolism in the blood was thought to be the primary etiologic factor. Interest in the relationship between the function of the liver and