TERMINATION OF NERVES IN THE LIVER. 441 



interior of the cell termiuate in a series of fine fibrils with 

 regularly placed granules or svvelliugs along the course of each. 



Heringi found a rich supply of nerve-fibres entering the 

 portal canal and branching with the vessels running in Glisson's 

 capsule. Only a few were medullated, the finest bundles con- 

 taining only non-medullated fibrils. Hering was unable to 

 trace any nerves into the hepatic lobules. 



Nesterowsky" injected the vessels of the cat and dog with 

 coloured glue, and left sections of the organ so treated in a i 

 per cent, solution of gold chloride for twenty to twenty-five 

 minutes, after which he put them in a weak solution of glyce- 

 rine acidified with acetic acid, till they took a violet colour, 

 Avhich usually happened in five to fifteen days. In some cases 

 he added a little of a solution of ammonium sulphide in order 

 to bring out the nerves more prominently. He found branches 

 of the portal vein surrounded by a plexus of coarse and fine 

 nerve-fibres. Out of the coarser plexus arise fine anastomosing 

 fibres, forming loops ; they enter the lobules and closely twine 

 about the blood-capillaries. Nesterowsky never observed even 

 a connection between these nerve-fibres and the hepatic cells. 

 He could not determine whether the nerves were medullated or 

 not, although he thought he saw in one case examples of the 

 former. 



KupfFer^ followed Nesterowsky^s methods, and came to the 

 conclusion that the fibres considered by the latter as nerves are 

 simply those of connective tissue. He treated sections of the 

 liver obtained by means of a Valentine knife with weak chromic 

 acid solution (O'Oo per cent.) and then left them for several 

 days in a 0*01 per cent, solution of gold chloride, when they 

 attained a red or violet colour. By means of this method he 

 demonstrated the so-called '^stellate cells,'' and at the same 

 time found that the tissues immediately about the central vein 

 of the lobule acquired a violet tint, a fact which indicated, he 

 first thought, the presence of nerve-fibres, but he afterwards 



' ' Strieker's Handbuch,' p. 452, Leipzig, 1871. 



- " Ueber die Nerven der Leber," ' Vircliow's Archiv,' Bd. G3, p. 412, 1875. 



3 " Ueber Steruzellea dcr Leber," ' Arch, fiir Mikr. Anat.,' Bd, xii, p. 353. 



