The paleopathology of the liver

Paleopathology, the study of disease in ancient remains, adds the dimension of time to our study of health and disease. The oldest finding relating the liver to disease is indirect skeletal evidence of hypervitaminosis A in an early human fossil owing to the ingestion of excessive amounts of animal liver. The earliest evidence of pathologic change in the liver is an example of schistosomal cirrhosis in a 3200 year old Egyptian mummy. Lipofuscin pigment has been identified in the liver of a 1600 year old Eskimo mummy. An experimental study suggests that the potential exists for identifying a wide range of hepatic pathology in mummified remains.