

THE LIVER SECRETION OF BILE. 



475 



without affecting the nucleus. 1 The Liver, therefore, belongs to the class of 

 ramified tubular glands; and the materials of the biliary secretion formed 

 from the blood by the cells lining the intralobular extremities of the ducts 

 are discharged into the interior of these canals either by exudation or by the 



FIG. 172. 



^N 

 ^' ? %.$j$.^ 



.^iV, ^4'-:^ 







A, Portion of a Hepatic Column, from Human Liver, showing its component secreting cells; B, 

 secreting cells detached ; a, in their normal state; 6, a cell, more highly magnified, showing the nucleus 

 and distinct oil- particles ; c, in various stages of fatty degeneration. 



deliquescence of the cells themselves. Teichmanu' 2 describes the lymphatics 

 as running with the portal venous branches, and the biliary ducts as form- 

 ing a plexus with large, irregular meshes on the outside of the lobuli, and 

 he believes he has even injected minute branches passing up their centre 

 with the Vena intralobularis of the Hepatic Veins. MacGillavry 3 describes 

 the lymphatics of the liver of the rabbit as forming loose sheaths, and his 

 statements have been confirmed by Asp. Similar sheaths have been observed 

 by Irminger and Frey around the bloodvessels of the liver of the dog. A 

 single layer of lymphatics exists on the peritoneal surface of the Liver, 

 lying in the subserous areolar tissue. The nerves of the Liver have been 



1 Schiff (Archiv f. Phys. Heilk., 1857, 263, and Untersuch. iib. die Zuckerbildung 

 in dor Leber, etc., Wurz., 1859) described two kinds of granules in the Liver cells 

 besides the nucleus, one of these was dark-bordered and highly refractile, the other 

 much smaller and pale. These last he thought were particles of Glycogen. Buck 

 and Hofl'mann (Virchow's Archiv, 1872, Bd. Ivi, p. 202) deny this on the grounds of 

 their chemical reaction and the want of relation between their numbers and the 

 amount of Glycogen in the Liver. For an account of the albuminous compounds of 

 the Liver, see Plosz, Pflii^er's Archiv, 1873, Bd. vii, p. 371. Schenk (Centralblatt, 

 1869, p. 865) has described peculiar protoplasmic masses resembling amoebae in pos- 

 sessing spontaneous movement, as being present in the embryonal Liver of mammals, 

 and Pflii^er (Archiv f. ges. Physiol., Bd. ii, p. 459) states that the liver cells possess 

 processes^like those of the salivary cells, and appears to think there is some commu- 

 nication between the biliary canaliculi and the interior of the cells ; since if the cap- 

 illary ducts of the biliary canals are injected with cold Prussian blue injection fine 

 ducts may be seen to penetrate the protoplasm of the cells, which divide and sur- 

 round the uncolored nucleus. MacGillavry had previously noticed that on injection 

 of the lymphatics with cold Prussian blue the nuclei of the colorless hepatic cells 

 became deeply stained. 



2 Saugader System, p. 94, Leipzig, 1861. 



3 MacGillavry, Zur Anat. der Leber, Pamphlet, 1864. His statements are corrob- 

 orated by Frey, Handb. der Histol. und Histochem., 4 Aufl., p. 524, and Biesiadecki, 

 Wien. Skzungsber., Bd.lv. H. D. Schmidt in Month. Micros. Journ., 1870; Asp, 

 Ludvvig's Arbeiten, 1873, Bd. vii, p. 134. See also, for Lymphatics of Capsule of Liver, 

 Wed)., idem, Bd. Ixiv, Abth. 1. 



