72 The Microscopie Structure ret eae im 
tions are at present unknown. I refer to extensive plexuses, 
formed by the ducts of an immense number of small glands, which 
are either simple or racemose. These receive many fine branches of 
the lymphatics, and communicate freely with the hepatic ducts. 
Their extent is very great. We find them at the inferior surface 
of the liver, covermg the space between the large hepatic ducts, 
before they enter the organ ; also in the capsule of the portal vessels 
—as far as the point where the inter-lobular branches are given off ; 
and in that of the hepatic ves. They are further met with 
around the ascending vena cava, where it passes the substance of 
the liver; in this situation I have found a very dense plexus of 
them communicating with the lymphatics. They exist also in the 
walls of the gall-bladder. 
The portal vein, after having entered the liver, divides into two 
large branches which turn laterally. These, besides giving rise to 
several smaller ones, divide into two or three branches, one of 
which takes its course toward the posterior surface of the liver, 
the other toward its anterior margin, and the third toward its upper 
surface. From the last-mentioned branches smaller ones arise which 
are distributed in the same radiating manner throughout the organ. 
The hepatic vems proceeding from the ascending vena cava are 
usually—beside some smaller branches—two large trunks which 
turn forward while inclining laterally. From the root of these 
trunks, a smaller branch springs, which runs m a lateral direction, 
parallel with the posterior margin of the liver. Each of the two 
large trunks, while running forward, divides into two or more 
branches which proceed toward the margin of the liver in a latero- 
anterior direction. From the last division, smaller branches arise 
which are distributed, like those of the portal vein, in a radiating 
manner throughout the organ. ‘The course of the branches of both 
sets of vessels is inclined toward the upper surface. The large 
trunks and branches of the hepatic and portal veins cross each 
other, while the smaller ones run almost parallel. The branches 
of the hepatic veins are remarkable for their straight course and 
for the sharp, more or less acute or even right angles which they 
form with their parent trunks. The course of the hepatic artery 
and hepatic duct is the same as that of the portal vem. From the 
smallest branches of the vessels and duct just described, other sub- 
divisions are formed and continued until the ultimate ramuscules, 
resulting from this process, have become small enough to join their 
respective capillary networks, 
Of the Arrangement of the Vessels, Ducts, &c., within the 
different parts of the Capsule of the Liver. 
1. Within the Capsule of the Portal Vessels.—The hepatic artery, 
while dividing into its larger branches, and before entering the sub- 
