ALIMENTARY CANAL, ETC., OF AMIURUS CATUS. 409 
The hepatic cells are of small diameter, speaking comparatively, 
measuring on the overage 124, the smallest observed being 9°5 py, 
and the largest twice that size. Their characteristics are most easily 
observed in the fresh state, when they are obtained by drawing the 
edge of a knife over the cut surface of the liver. Examined in salt 
solution, at the ordinary temperature of the room, the single cells 
exhibit curious movements and forms. This fact has been fully de- 
scribed for the hepatic cells of mammalian livers. The movement is 
usually designated as an ameeboid one, but is sensibly different from 
it, as no protrusion of processes occurs. In the majority of cases a cir- 
cular constriction appears at one pole of the cell, and slowly travels 
toward the opposite pole ; when at the equator of the cell it gives 
the appearance of a dumb-bell. Before this constriction has disap- 
peared a second one may arise, and even a third, at the same pole. 
The locomotion arising from this may be little or nothing. An in- 
crease of temperature has no effect on the rapidity of the contraction 
or constriction. A flow of the contents of the cell from one part to 
the other during contraction occurs, while that portion of the cell 
which forms a thin sheath for it apparently brings about the contrac- 
tions or constrictions. The sheath is quite free from granules, and 
formed of a clear substance not marked off definitely from the granu- 
lar central mass other than by the absence of granules. 
When in the resting state the cell is perfectly spherical, although 
such is not the case in the fresh liver. Young cat-fishes of about 
one to two inches in length, offer livers which when carefully re- 
moved give good opportunities on account of the thinness of the 
lobes for observing therefrom any movement of the cell. 
The liver cell contains beside large nuclei of 3 » and 4 in diam- 
eter, oil globules, and a few pigment granules. In the nucleus may 
be one or more nucleolar bodies. In the cell itself, in fresh condi- 
tion, there can be observed five processes radiating from the nucleus. 
Hardened in Miiller’s fluid or in a solution of potassic bichromate, 
the fine intracellular reticulation can be observed to be unequally 
distributed throughout the cell. It seems to be aggregated around 
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the nucleus, and from there radiates to the side of the cell which 
borders on the gall capillary, 7.¢., away from the blood capillary. 
‘The reticulation encloses nearly all the pigmented granules, the re- 
mainder of the cell being pretty free from them. 
