474 



OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 



alkanet in turpentine (Asp), have observed that under moderate pressure 

 the fluid injected will often penetrate directly from the smaller biliary ducts 

 into the biliary cells, the so-called biliary capillaries then entirely disappear- 



FIG. 171. 



a 



FIG. 170. Injected Biliary capillaries of the Liver of the Rabbit. Part of a Lobule, showing the 

 arrangement of the biliary ducts in relation to the hepatic cells : a, capillaries of the biliary duels ; 6, 

 hepatic cells ; c, biliary ducts ; d, capillary bloodvessels. 



FIG. 171. Section of Rabbit's Liver injected : c, blood capillaries ; 6, bile passages ; n, nucleus of 

 hepatic cell. 



ing, and the peripheric part of the lobules becoming deeply stained ; on 

 subsequently injecting Prussian blue, Asp found that it was retained in the 

 passages it would under ordinary circumstances have run in, and did not 

 enter the cells, precluding, in his opinion, the idea that there are any coarse 

 openings between the biliary ducts and liver cells. The demonstration of 

 their ultimate biliary canals by the injection of colored fluids is extremely 

 difficult in Man on account of the coagulation of their contents. Soon after 

 death they have, however, been very distinctly seen as the result of disease 

 in animals, 1 and may perhaps hereafter be in this way made apparent in the 

 human subject. 



390. The biliary cells of the Human liver (Fig. 172, B) are usually of a 

 polyhedric spheroidal form channelled at their angles by the capillaries, and 

 on their surfaces by the biliary canals, and are from g-^th to -^o^th of an 

 inch in diameter. Each of them, generally, but not always (Asp), presents 

 one or two distinct nuclei containing numerous granules; and the cavity of 

 the cell is occupied by yellow amorphous biliary matter, usually having one 

 or two large adipose globules, or five or six small ones, intermingled with it 

 (a, I). The size and number of these, however, vary considerably, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the food, the amount of exercise recently taken, and 

 other circumstances. If an animal be very fat or be well fed, especially 

 with farinaceous or oleaginous substances, the proportion of adipose particles 

 (c) is much greater than in an animal moderately fed and taking much exer- 

 cise. The size of the oil-globules varies from that of mere points, scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the granular contents of the cells except by their intense 

 blackness, up to one-fourth of the diameter of the cell. A still greater ac- 

 cumulation of adipose particles in the biliary cells gives rise, as was first 

 pointed out by Mr. Bowman, 2 to the peculiar condition termed " fatty liver." 

 The finely granular matter is the portion from which the color of the cell is 

 derived; it seems to fill the space not occupied by the oil-globules; and it 

 often obscures the nucleus, so that the latter cannot be distinguished until 

 acetic acid is added, which makes the granular matter more transparent 



1 Texas Cuttle Disease. Austin Flint, Physiology of Man, vol. iii, p. -40. 



2 Medical Gazette, Jan. 1842. 



