NORMAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 



18f 



in a living animal so as to resemble an hour- 

 glass. Andral thinks that he has perceived 

 muscular fibres in the hypertrophied coats of 

 the gall-bladder, and Ferrus records a case as 

 occurring to Amussat where, in obstruction to 

 the ductus choledochus by a gall-stone, the 

 middle coat of the gall-bladder and ducts above 

 the impediment was evidently muscular. This 

 preparation was seen by Kiernan at the time 

 that it occurred. The bile during its stay in 

 the gall-bladder becomes inspissated by the 

 removal of the Huid part of the secretion, which 

 is most probably taken up by the numerous 

 lymphatics which cover its surface. 



The uses of the bile are threefold ; 1 . it acts 

 chemically upon the chyme and produces the 

 separation of the chyle; 2. it combines with 

 the residuum and forms the faecal matter ; 3 

 it stimulates the mucous surface of the canal 

 and promotes its secretion, and the contractile 

 action of the muscular coat. 



Red and yellow substances of Ferrein. 

 Since the period when anatomists were di- 

 vided in their considerations of the liver by ihe 

 two great contending opinions of Malpighi 

 and Ruysch, the former maintaining its com- 

 position of glands, and the latter of mi- 

 nute vessels, the majority of observers have 

 adopted the views proposed by Ferrein, who 

 was the first to vindicate the existence of two 

 distinct substances, which he named cortical 

 and medullary. It was reserved for Kiernan 

 in our own day to prove that " the structure 

 of all the lobules is similar;" that "each lo- 

 bule is the same throughout ; " that " one part 

 of a lobule is not more vascular than another ;" 

 and that " there is, therefore, no distinction 

 of red and yellow substances in the liver ; the 

 red colour results from congestion only." This 

 doctrine being now established as an undis- 

 puted truth, it is not surprising to observe that 

 anatomists and pathologists differed in opinion 

 with regard to the relative position and appear- 

 ance which these two imaginary substances 

 occupied in the respective livers which they 

 chanced to examine, and upon which they 

 established their decision. Thus we find that 

 Ferrein described the medullary substance as 

 being red in colour, and of a pulpy con- 

 sistence, and the cortical as friable in its struc- 

 ture, and of a yellowish red colour. Auten- 

 rieth, on the contrary, found the red substance 

 to be cortical and the yellow medullary. 

 Mappes having obtained a liver in a different 

 state of congestion, conceives that the yellow 

 substance might be named granulated; he de- 

 cribes it as forming convolutions, one while 

 like intestines, and another while branched, 

 flat, or rounded ; and the spaces between the 

 convolutions as being rounded, or resem- 

 bling oblong fissures filled with a brownish 

 and loose substance. Meckel coincides with 

 Mappes in the relative position of these parts ; 

 they are not, he says, placed as in the brain, 

 one on the exterior, the other in the interior, 

 but they alternate throughout the entire organ, 

 the yellow substance forming the mass of the 

 liver, and the brown filling the interspaces. 

 Rudolphi objects to the terms medullary and 



cortical. Bouillaud asserts that the yellow sub- 

 stance presents itself in the form of granu- 

 lations having the figure, colour, and arrange- 

 ment of the secreting granules of the bile 

 known, as he remarks, under the name of 

 acini. These granules, he says, are surrounded 

 by the brown substance, which therefore as- 

 sumes an angular appearance; it is composed 

 of a vascular net-work, and may be compared 

 to erectile tissue. Andral, in his Anatomie 

 Pathologique, says, " Lorsqu'on examine avec 

 quelque soin un certain nombre de foies, Ton 

 y reconnait 1'existence de deux substances : 

 1'une rouseatre, ou se ramifie surtout le sys- 

 teme capillaire de 1'organe ; 1'autre blanche ou 

 jaunatre, qui semble surtout destinee a 1'accom- 

 plissement de la secretion biliare. Dans 1'ctat 

 normal ces deux substances sont distinctes." 

 The opinion of Ferrein is opposed by Portal 

 and Oruveilliier : the former anatomist, after 

 reproving certain modern authors who wished 

 to combine the views of Malpighi and Ruysch 

 by admitting that the liver was formed both of 

 glands and of a prodigious number of vessels, 

 contents himself by asserting that Ferrein's idea 

 of the composition of the glands of the liver 

 of two substances was gratuitous. To Cruveil- 

 hier the distinction of two substances appears ill 

 founded, for he observes that the two colours 

 when they exist, which is not constantly the 

 case, do not belong to two distinct granula- 

 tions, but to one and the same, which is yel- 

 lowish in the centre where the bile predo- 

 minates, and of a brownish red in the circum- 

 ference where the blood is situated. Kiernan 

 ranks Miiller among the authors who entertain 

 an opposite opinion to that of Ferrein, but 

 I find upon referring to his work upon the 

 glands, that lie distinctly admits a kind of 

 double substance although he objects to its de- 

 signation, medullary and cortical ; hence he ob- 

 serves : " Diversam substantiam hepatis, ut- 

 pote medullarem et corticalem, quae per hepar 

 totum undique obveuiunt, qualem Autenrieth, 

 Bichat, Cloquet, Mappes, atque etiam J. Fr. 

 Meckel admittunt, equidem neque in historia 

 evolutionis amphibiorum et avium, neque in 

 hepate adultorum microscopice observato con- 

 spexi. Historia evolutionis hanc quaestionem 

 evidentissime illustrat. Systema nimirum duc- 

 tuum biliferorum in embryone amphibiorum et 

 avium liberis finibus in superficie hepatis pro- 

 minulis conspicuum. Sarmentula ilia foliatim 

 et paniculatim divaricata, colore e gilvo can- 

 dido nitent, magnopere ab interstitiis sanguino- 

 lentis distincta. Hinc sane duplicis substantial 

 species exoritur, quoniam circum ductuum bi- 

 liferorum a tela conjunctiva expleantur, quae 

 ex subtilissimis fereconstat vasculorum sangui- 

 feiorum retibus, in quibus arteriae et venulae 

 advehentes in revehentes venas transeunt. 

 Atque base sola est utriusque substantiae notio. 

 Sed in omnibus organis glandulosis fere idem 

 obvenit." In his Physiology he is disposed to 

 modify his previous idea of two substances, 

 for he says, " From my researches, however, it 

 results that there is but one kind of real he- 

 patic substnnce, formed of agglomerated biliary 

 cana'.s ; but the ramified divisions of this sub- 



