274 . FRANKLIN PARADISE JOHNSON 



Finally, in the human body if one will take the care to wash out the 

 blood which is found in the liver by the injection of water, one will 

 observe all the substance of the liver tissue to be composed of a number 

 of small lobes, which resemble, as in other animals, a bunch of grapes. 



The lobules were again described by Malpighi in 1683 and in 

 his Opera Posthuma (1698), he accredited Wepfer with the pri- 

 ority of discovery. 



A most noteworthy and often cited contribution to the sub- 

 ject of liver lobules is that of Kiernan, 1833. He states: 



The form of the liver lobules will be now easily understood: their 

 dimensions are known to all anatomists. They are small bodies ar- 

 ranged in close contact around the sub-lobular-hepatic veins, each^re- 

 senting two surfaces. One surface of every lobule, which may be called 

 its base, rests upon a sublobular vein, to which it is connected by an 

 intralobular vein runniriig through its center, the base of the lobule 

 thus entering into the formation of a canal in which the sublobular 

 vein is contained. The canal containing the hepatic veins may be 

 called the hepatic-venous canals or surfaces ; and as the base of a lobule 

 rests on the sublobular vein, it is evident that the canals containing 

 these veins are fo'rmed by the bases of all the lobules of the liver. The 

 external or capsular surface of every lobule is covered by an expansion 

 of Glisson's capsule, by which it is connected to and separated from 

 the contiguous lobules, and in which the branches of the hepatic duct, 

 portal vein and hepatic artery ramify. All the lobules resemble each 

 other in their general form, and they are all df nearly equal dimensions, 

 they appear larger when the section is made in the direction of the 

 hepatic vein, and smaller when in the transverse directid'n. 



Although in few details the above description is incorrect, on 

 the whole it gives one a clear idea of the arrangement of liver 

 lobules. Kiernan's whole paper is full of splendid observations, 

 and one may truthfully say, serves as the basis of our present 

 knowledge of the liver. His figures illustrating the liver lob- 

 ules, very probably taken from the liver of the pig, have found 

 their w^ay into numerous textbooks of anatomy. 



In 1842, Weber called attention to the fact that the lob- 

 ules of the human liver are not separated from one another as 

 in the pig, and that while lobules are indicated, the parenchyma 

 forms a continuous mass throughout. 



The work of Theile, 1884, (cited from Mall, '06) in which are 

 described 'pseudo lobules,' gave rise to a new^ conception of the 



