In the 4th century B.C. Plato liver nutritive soul 11th century A.D. Anglo-Saxon chronicle notes meat intolerance in cirrhosis 1600 B.C. Ebers Papyrus hints relationship of ascites and liver disease 5th century B.C. Hippocrates theory of disease based on proportion of black bile to yellow bile describes cirrhosis epidemic jaundice jaundice with delirium 4th century B.C. Plato liver nutritive soul Erasistratus of Alexandria association of ascites with cirrhosis 1st century A.D. Rufus icterus classification with fevers with bile duct obstruction or with abscess 5th century A.D. Caelius Aurelianus notes urine discoloration with cirrhosis 11th century A.D. Anglo-Saxon chronicle notes meat intolerance in cirrhosis 1400-1500 Metlinger jaundice of newborn 1600-1700 Shakespeare and hepatic coma Sir Andrew Aguecheck goes into hepatic coma due to meat intolerance 1700-1800 Boerhaave links jaundice of hepatitis to bile duct obstruction Morgagni pathologic studies of jaundice cancer jaundice Baillie alcoholism and cirrhosis 1800-1900 Laennec proposes the term cirrhosis Bremser describes echinococcosis Griffin modern account of hepatic coma Bright clinico-pathologic entity of pyogenic liver abscess Becquerel cardiac cirrhosis Rokitansky names acute yellow atrophy Abercombie describes ruptured liver in pregnancy Van Deen describes chronic perihepatitis Budd describes Budd- Chiari Syndrome Flint describes renal faiure and cirrhosis Troisier describes hemochromatosis Orth describes kernicterus coined by Schmorl Hanot describes the entity of primary biliary cirrhosis Sabourin notes association of cirrhosis with hepatocellular carcinoma Lurman serum hepatitis Westphal depicts entity Wilson’s disease Hanot and Schachmann coin term “bronze diabetes” Gilbert introduces term “portal hypertension” 1900-2000 Gilbert and Lereboullet describe Gilbert’s disease Kayser and later Fleischer describe corneal rings in Wilson’s disease Mallory describes alcoholic hepattis Yamagawa two major types of hepatocellular carcinoma Wilson describes Wilson’s syndrome Cockayne describes epidemic jaundice Helwig and Schutz coin term “hepatorenal syndrome” Waldenstrom describes chronic active hepatitis Ahrens coin term primary biliary cirrhosis Dubin and Johnson describe Dubin-Johnson syndrome Conn describes spontaneus bacterial peritonitis Klatskin describes Klatskin tumor Prine describe a third viral

3000-2000 BC – Babylonians divine sheeps’ livers; the belief that the liver is the seat of the soul is probably due to its size, warmth, and enrichment with blood and therefore the repository of life. They recognized and mentioned the gall bladder, cytic duct, and bile ducts.

Diagram of the sheep’s liver found near Piacenza with Etruscan inscriptions on the bronze sheep’s Liver of Piacenza Wiki

Etruscan  Culture and the Gallbladder

Piacenza Bronze Liver Model, Piacenza Museo Civico, Hellenistic Period, and Map Reference Reference http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/archaeolog/2007/09/reading_livers_through_reading_1.html

Liver historical Table of events 3000-2000 BC Babylonians divine the sheeps liver belief that the liver was the seat of the soul probably because of its size warmth and enrichment with blood and therefore the repository of life Ancient Greeks an Romans saw the liver as the seat of emotion and the seat of life and hence its name. Mythologic figure Prometheus 500-400 BC Hippocrates liver supplies brain with blood Diogenes double circulation, liver on one side 400-300 BC Etruscans hepatoscopy Plato liver is the nutritive soul Socrates the liver is sweet Heropilus first accurate description of the human liver Erastistratus postulate a capillary bed 100-0 BC Celsus describes the liver as 4 lobed 0-100 AD Rufus describes the liver as 5 lobed 100-200 AD Galen the liver as the dominant organ 1400-1500 AD da Vinci the heart and not liver is origin of circulation 1500-1600 Vesalius misconceives the portal circulation 1600 – 1700 Shakespeare refers to liver in Love’s Labors Lost Aselli rediscovers mesenteric lacteals Harvey general circulation of the blood Waleus describes capsule Vesling reports bifurcation of portal vein Bartholin dethrones the liver Glisson anatomy of the liver and liver capsule Wepfer lobular pattern of pigs liver Malpighi the liver as a conglomerate gland 1700-1800 Haller human hepatic lobation 1800-1900 Kiernan the hepatic lobule Brissaud/Sabourin the portal lobule

Histology

Hooke (1600-1700) early microscopic observations – 1665 observed “globules” which were either the cells themselves or other artefacts or parts of tissues or cells

Grewe (1600-1700) early microscopic observations similar to Hooke

Lister (1830) improved microscope improved microscopic observations

Purkinje (1838) identified nuclii in liver cells and established the appearance of the liver cell

Minot (1900-2000 AD) distinguished the sinusoid from the capillary circulation

Beckmann in 1859 noted “spindle shaped or with several processes” with “black pigment” prior to the observations of Kupffer

Kupffer (1800-1900 AD) Kupffer stained the liver with gold chloride he identified this stellate cell which he thought was external to the sinusoid

Dutrochet cytology of the hepatocyte Gerlach liver cell cord theory Beckmann describes pigemented cells (Kupffer) MacGillavry describes the space of Disse Herring identifies bile channels Kupffer studies stellate cells of the liver

1800-1900 Leevy quantitates liver cell proliferation

 

Histopathology

1645 Glisson believed the liver was one continuous mass 1666 Malpighi using microscope saw liver as an aggregation of lobules 1793 Baillie common tubercle of the liver (macroscopic) associatedwith alcohol subsequently known as cirrhosis 1801 Bichat (1771-1802) proposed that body was made of tissues 1833 Kiernan, Francis (1800-1875) portal triad the hepatic lobule 1830’s Rokitansky pathology hepatitis Cruveilhier (1829-1835) cirrhosis was combination of atrophy and hypertrophy 1839 Hallman first toexamine cirrhosis microscopically saw nodules of liver surrounded by fibrous bands 1840 Becquerel cirrhosis was infiltration of “albumino-fibrinous material” Cruveilhier (1829-1835) cirrhosis was combination of atrophy and hypertrophy 1951 Rappaport proposes unit as acinar unit Leevy quantitates liver cell proliferation