A relationship between the gastro-intestinal tract, especially the liver, and the central nervous system is suggested by the demonstration of damage to the liver in diseases usually considered primary to the central nervous system, by the constant association of pathologic processes in the liver and in the brain or cord in such conditions as Wilson's progressive lenticular degeneration and the pseudosclerosis of Westphal, and by the occurrence of clinical and histologic changes in the central nervous system in primary hepatic conditions.
Rapoport1 stated that diffuse parenchymatous degeneration of the brain, especially marked in the cortex, occurs in acute yellow atrophy; Kirschbaum2 reported diffuse changes in the central nervous system in atrophy of the liver, and Weltman3 has also noted pathologic processes of the central nervous system in disease of the liver. Experimentally, the neurologic symptoms occurring in dogs with Eck fistulas when intoxicated with meat are well