PAINLESS JAUNDICE: Chairman's Address

A discussion of painless jaundice should be preceded by some qualification of the title. Pain is a subjective phenomenon for which there is no reliable gage, and its estimation is based on the patient's description and reactions. The great variations in degree of pain to what appears to be approximately the same stimulus are well known, and when the term painless is used it is to be interpreted in a relative sense. The scope of jaundice for the purposes of the present discussion is limited to the types directly related to the liver parenchyma and to the biliary passages. TYPES OF Jaundice Jaundice directly concerned with the biliary system falls into two principal classifications, (1) that due to injury of the liver cells by some form of infection or toxin, and (2) that caused by obstruction of the biliary passages. When the parenchymal cells of the liver are at fault,