Amyloidosis

A UNIQUE disorder causing the liver to be waxy, enlarged and elastic was recognized by a number of pathologists in the early nineteenth century. In 1842 Rokitansky1 observed that the hepatic abnormality was occasionally accompanied by similar changes in the spleen. The widespread nature of this disorder was recognized by Budd,2 Meckel3 and Virchow,4 but it remained for the last to characterize the disease more definitively. Virchow had found that the corpora amylacea of the human brain reacted with iodine and sulfuric acid to give a violet hue, and subsequently observed similar staining in the "lardaceous" liver and spleen.5 6 7 8 He . . .