NORMAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 



163 



it may assume a chocolate or purplish brown 

 or a slate colour, and if from obstruction to the 

 bile-ducts, a variable shade of yellow. Its 

 texture is firm and dense, but extremely fra- 

 gile, the fracture presenting a granular appear- 

 ance. 



The dimensions of the liver are very consi- 

 derable, as may be inferred by recollecting that 

 this is the largest organ in the body. Through 

 the longest diameter from the extremity of the 

 right to the edge of the left lobe, it measures 

 about twelve inches; from before backwards, 

 through the transverse diameter of the right 

 lobe, about seven inches, and through the thick- 

 est part of the right lobe, in a vertical di- 

 rection, about four inches. These measure- 

 ments, however, can only be received as an 

 approximation to the average, for the size of 

 the organ varies in different individuals ; thus it 

 is larger in males than in females, and is more 

 bulky in persons of sedentary habits than in 

 those who are robust and active. Its weight is 

 about five pounds ; its relative weight to the 

 entire body, as 1 to 36 ; and the specific gra- 

 vity one half heavier than water. 



Chemical analysis of the human liver has 

 shewn that in 100 parts, there are, of 



Water 61.79 



Solid matters 38.21 



Of 100 parts of the solid matters, 



71.18 are soluble in water, hot or cold, or 

 alcohol ; and consist of, osmazome, 

 stearine, elaine, resin, oleic and 

 margaric acids, gelatine, and sali- 

 vine. 



28.72 are insoluble. 



2.034 are salts; viz. chloruret, phosphate of 

 potash, phosphate of lime, and 

 oxide of iron. 



Bullocks' liver, analysed by Braconnot, is, 

 according to Berzelius, analogous to the pre- 

 ceding, the differences being dependent solely 

 upon a difference of manipulation. 100 parts 

 contain, 



55.50 water. 



44.50 solid matters, composed of, 



Vessels and membranes . . 1 8.94 



Soluble matters 25.56 



100 parts of the pulp of liver contained, 

 58.64 water. 

 20.19 dry albumen. 



6.07 matter very soluble in water ; slight- 

 ly in alcohol ; containing little 

 nitrogen. 

 3.89 fat. 



0.64 chloruret of potash. 

 0.47 phosphate of lime containing iron. 

 0.10 salt of potash combined with a 



combustible acid. 



Varieties in the liver may be referred to one 

 of two heads varieties in form, and varieties in 

 position. 



Varieties in form occasionally occur, but 

 they are more rare in the liver than in almost 

 any other organ of the body. I have seen the 

 left lobe so small as to appear but a mere ap- 

 pendage to the right, being connected to it only 

 by a thin and narrow isthmus. Cruveilhier re- 

 cords an instance in which the left lobe was 



attached to the right merely by a vascular pe- 

 dicle about half an inch in length; the extre- 

 mity of the lobe being adherent to the upper 

 pait of the spleen. Deep and narrow grooves 

 are occasionally seen upon the convex surface 

 of the right lobe running in an antero-posterior 

 direction ; they correspond with projecting fasci- 

 culi of the diaphragm, and occur generally in 

 women who have laced tightly. This surface 

 is also marked frequently in females with deep 

 channels, which are formed by the pressure of 

 the ribs, and are also the result of tight lacing. 

 The liver is sometimes constricted in the 

 middle from this cause, and a dense fibrous 

 band, produced by thickening of the fibrous 

 capsule, extends around it like a belt. The 

 lobes are occasionally divided by deep fissures 

 into several additional lobes ; the liver in this 

 case presents a character which is normal 

 amongst the lower animals. In a few in- 

 stances the fossa for the gall-bladder has been 

 found excavated so deeply as to render the 

 fundus of the sac apparent through an open- 

 ing on the upper surface of the liver, a pecu- 

 liarity which is also normal amongst some of 

 the lower tribes of animals. 



Varieties of position are more frequent than 

 those of diversity of form. During utero-gesta- 

 tion the liver is usually pressed considerably 

 above its ordinary plane, so as to impede more 

 or less the action of the diaphragm and pro- 

 duce embarrassed respiration. In an extremely 

 fat subject I once saw the diaphragm raised by 

 the liver to a level with the fourth intercostal 

 space, measured near to the sternum. In its 

 natural position the thin margin of the liver 

 scarcely reaches the border of the thorax, but 

 in women who have laced tightly during youth 

 nothing is more common than to find this edge 

 forced several inches below the base of the 

 thorax, and altered in its form. In these cases 

 the direction of the aspects of the organ are 

 likewise changed; the convex surface looks di- 

 rectly forwards, instead of upwards and for- 

 wards, and lies in contact with the abdominal 

 parietes. The concave surface is directed back- 

 wards in place of downwards and backwards, 

 and the posterior border is forced upwards. 

 In a sketch from the subject, now before me, 

 the greater part of the convex surface of the 

 organ is in contact with the abdominal pa- 

 rietes, and the free margin extends into the 

 umbilical and lumbar regions. In another 

 sketch, as a result of the enormous magnitude 

 of the stomach from the same cause, the liver 

 is raised almost perpendicularly, the extremity 

 of the left lobe being in contact with the dia- 

 phragm, and .the right lobe in the right iliac 

 fossa. A part of the liver has been found in 

 the sac* of inguinal and umbilical hernia. 

 Various peculiar appearances are observed in 

 the liver of the foetus arising from arrest of 

 development. Thus, for instance, the entire 

 organ, or a part of it, may be situated in the 

 chest, or from absence of development of the 

 abdominal parietes the liver may form part of 



* Gimzius de Heniiis, in Portal's Anatomic Me- 

 dicale. 



M 2 



