Mr. Beale on the Anatomy of the Liver of Vertebrate Animals. 465 



Mr. Kiernan describes and figures anastomoses between branches 

 of the biliary ducts in the left triangular ligament of the human 

 liver. The same author considered that the interlobular ducts ana- 

 stomosed with each other, and communicated with a lobular biliary 

 plexus, although he had never succeeded in injecting this plexus to 

 the extent shown in his figure, neither had he directly observed the 

 anastomoses between interlobular ducts. It must be borne in mind 

 that these observations were made before the liver- cells had been 

 described. 



Since the appearance of Mr. Kiernan's paper, various hypothetical 

 views have been advanced by ditferent observers, with reference to 

 the arrangement of the minute biliary ducts and the relation which 

 the liver-cells bear to them. These points, however, have not yet 

 been decided by actual observation. 



Miiller considered that the ducts terminated in blind extremities. 

 Weber showed that the right and left hepatic ducts anastomosed by 

 the intervention of branches in the transverse fissure of the liver, 

 which he described under the name of Vasa aberrantia. 



Krukenberg, Schroder Van der Kolk, Pvetzius, Theile, Backer, 

 Leidy and others have adopted the view that the liver- cells lie within 

 a network of basement membrane. On the other hand, Handfield 

 Jones and Kolliker describe the liver-cells as forming a solid net- 

 work, against the marginal cells of which Kolliker believes the ex- 

 tremities of the ducts impinge, while Handfield Jones holds that the 

 ducts terminate by blind extremities. 



Henle, Gerlach, Hyrtl and Natalis Guillot look upon the finest 

 gall ducts as communicating with intercellular passages. 



Dr. Handfield Jones looks upon the small cells in the extremities 

 of the ducts as the chief agents in the formation of bile, and to the 

 liver-cells he assigns an office totally distinct from this. Busk and 

 Huxley concur in this view, which would place the liver in the cate- 

 gory of vascular glands, spleen, suprarenal capsules, &c. 



The observations of the author have been made upon the livers 

 of several different animals examined under various circumstances. 

 The results of the examination of injected preparations precisely 

 accord with the observations made upon uninjected specimens some 

 months before. The points which he hopes to establish are as 

 follows : — 



1 . That the hepatic cells lie within an exceedingly delicate tubu- 

 lar network of basement membrane. 



2. That the smallest biliary ducts are directly continuous with 

 this network. 



3. That at the point where the excretory duct joins the tubes 

 which contain the secreting cells, it is very much constricted, 

 being many times narrower than the tube into which it becomes 

 dilated. 



Lobules. — With reference to the nature of the lobules of the liver, 

 the author offers some remarks. The only liver in whit^h he has 

 been able to detect distinct lobules, consisting of perfectly cir- 

 cumscribed portions of hepatic structure and separated from each 



