The term atrophic cirrhosis, as used in recent literature, is synonymous with portal, Laënnec's, nodular, granular and alcoholic cirrhosis. The term refers to this form of hepatic disease. It does not imply decreased size of the liver. In about 40 per cent of cases of this type, the weight of the liver is above normal. The liver is regularly enlarged in the earlier stages of this form of cirrhosis, and in children it usually remains above normal size. Confusion arises when authors class these large livers as hypertrophic. Mallory avoids the paradox of classifying large cirrhotic livers as atrophic by using the term alcoholic cirrhosis. He states emphatically that alcohol is not the cause of such cirrhosis. Thus, in avoiding one source of confusion another confusing term is perpetrated. All this confusion of terms might be avoided by the use of another of the synonyms for the atrophic type of