Alcoholic Cirrhosis and Other Toxic Hepatopathias.

This report deals with the 20 papers presented during the fourth international symposium arranged by the Skandia Group in Stockholm, Sweden, from Sept 29 to Oct 1,1969. The first 11 are concerned with the structural, histochemical, and metabolic findings associated with liver injury, for the most part ethanolic, in man. The participants are preeminent in their various fields, and for the most part the presentations are readable and comprehensible, even for those somewhat unfamiliar with biochemistry. The discussions which follow are excellent, and as usual in conferences of this kind, are often more informative than the formal paper itself. This group of subjects delineates the limitations of various methods of determining liver injury. It is refreshing to note that the liver is presented as a dynamic organ with complex, interrelated reactions progressing constantly. These preclude accurate determination of many metabolic changes except as they may be assayed from a single