NORMAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 



165 



called Glisson's capsule, of the ramifications 

 of tlie portal vein, hepatic duct, hepatic 

 artery, hepatic veins, lymphatics and nerves. 

 For an accurate knowledge of these different 

 structures, anatomy is indebted to the labours 

 of Mr. Kienian, to whose paper on " The 

 Anatomy and Physiology of the Liver," con- 

 tained in the Philosophical Transactions for 

 1833, I shall have constant occasion to refer. 



The small bodies (lobules, acini, corpuscula, 

 glandular grains, granulations) of which the 

 liver is composed were discovered by Wepfer 

 in the liver of the pig, about two years pre- 

 viously to the appearance of Malpighi's cele- 

 brated work, " De Viscerum Structura Ex- 

 ercitatio Anatomica." Malpighi, unacquainted 

 with Wepfer's discovery, examined and des- 

 cribed these bodies, both in animals and in 

 man, under the name of lobules; and the lo- 

 bules he found to consist of smaller bodies, 

 which he named acini. From some want of 

 precision in Malpighi's descriptions, these two 

 names have been confounded by the majority 

 of succeeding anatomists ; the term lobules, 

 with its distinctive application, has been disre- 

 garded and forgotten, and the term acini has 

 been applied to those minute bodies of which 

 the liver appears to be formed when examined 

 beneath the microscope with a moderate power, 

 the acini of Malpighi. So great, indeed, is 

 the confusion of terms even in 1838, that we 

 find a justly celebrated authority in minute 

 anatomy, Miiller, in speaking of Kiernan's 

 discovery, using the following words. " He " 

 (Kiernan) " describes the lobules of the liver 

 (which by other anatomists are termed acini)," 

 and further on he observes : " his description 

 of their form is indeed similar to that which 

 we have given above of the acini of the mace- 

 rated liver of the polar bear." Now, setting 

 aside the anachronism of d^j'covery contained 

 in the above quotation, which, as it appears to 

 me, should have betfi, our description of the 

 acini of the polar bear is similar to his des- 

 cription of tlte form of the lobules, inasmuch 

 as Kiernan's discovery was published in 1833, 

 and Miiller's description of the macerated liver 

 of the polar bear in 1835, I cannot but feel 

 somewhat surprised in observing that Miiller 

 draws no line of distinction between the lo- 

 bules and their supposed constituents the 

 acini. Nay, that he would seem to imply that 

 all anatomists were acquainted with the lo- 

 bules, but that they assigned to them a dif- 

 ferent name. To prove that this is not the 

 case, 1 quote a passage from his work upon 

 the glands, published in 1830, in which he ex- 

 presses himself unable to distinguish the ele- 

 mentary structure of the liver either in man or 

 in numerous other mammalia, for he says, " In 

 homine, ut in plurimis mammalibus, in he- 

 patis superficie certa qusedam particularum 

 elementarium sive acinorum confbrmatio con- 

 spici nonpotest." Now the question to be de- 

 cided, is the meaning which he assigns in this 

 quotation to the word acinorum ; does he mean 

 by that word the lobules or the acini of Mal- 

 pighi ? The solution is simple; we have it in 

 his own words, and exhibited in a figure in 



which life peculiar views of the anatomy of 

 the organ are clearly illustrated. In this figure, 

 (Jig. 217, page 485,) he says, " Observantur 

 fines ductuum biliferorum elongati, sen cylin- 

 driformes acini, in figuris ramosis et fbliatis 

 vane dispositi." So that the acini of Miiller 

 in 1830 are the terminations of the biliferous 

 ducts, corresponding therefore with the acini of 

 Malpighi, and the lobular biliary plexus of 

 Kiernan. In 1835, as instanced in the " ma- 

 cerated liver of the polar bear," the acini 

 of Miiller are the lobules of Malpighi and 

 Kiernan. 



Now seeing this indecision of opinion upon 

 a subject of so great importance in relation to 

 the proper understanding of the minute anatomy 

 of the liver, I have deemed it my duty, in the 

 service of anatomy, to place before my readers 

 this cursory sketch of the history of the anatomy 

 of the organ, and to establish the meaning of 

 the terms I shall have occasion to use in des- 

 cribing its intimate structure. By the word 

 lobules I shall mean, not the acini of anato- 

 mists, " which are anything or everything or 

 nothing as the case may be," but the lobules of 

 Malpighi and of Kiernan ; by the word acini 

 I shall indicate the smaller bodies of which 

 the lobules appear to be composed (acini of 

 Malpighi and of all writers); but which have 

 been shewn by Kiernan to be the meshes of a 

 plexus of biliary ducts, the " lobular biliary 

 plexus." 



The lobules are small granular bodies of 

 about the size of a millet-seed, of an irregular 

 form, and presenting a number of rounded pro- 

 jecting processes upon their surface. When 

 divided longitudinally (Jig. 34) they have a 

 foliated appearance, and transversely (Jig. 35) 



Fig. 34. 



A longitudinal section of a sub-lobular vein. 

 Nos. 1, 1, longitudinal sections of lobules, pre- 

 senting a foliated appearance. 2, 2, superficial lo- 

 bules terminating by a flat extremity upon the 

 surface of the liver ; 3, 3, the capsular surface of 

 a lobule -, 4, the ba<es of the lobules seen through 

 the coats of the vein and forming the canal in which 

 the sub-lobular vein is contained; 5, the intra-lo- 

 bular vein commencing by minute venules at ashort 

 distance from the capsular surface of the lobule ; 

 6, the intra-lobular vein of a superficial lobule com- 

 mencing directly from the surface ; 7, the open- 

 ings of the intra-lobular veins which issue from the 

 centre of the base of each lobule -, 8, the interlo- 

 bular fissures seen through the coats of the sub-lo- 

 bular vein ; 9, interlobular spaces. 



