68 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY ]Mar., 



ers generally are good for the mere purpose of showing 

 the ca])il]ary vessels but they do not sliow the cellular 

 structure at the same time as a rule. An injection 

 should be made with a gelatine mass which will harden 

 in alcohol just as the cells do, and from such a section 

 the relation of the cells and capillaries can be readily 

 made out. Figures 2 and 4 were both of them drawn 

 from the same section, one of them being drawn from the 

 capillaries the other from the cells. The former is a 

 view of the converging capillaries derived from the hep- 

 atic artery and the portal vein which as already shown 

 are located on the periphery of the lobule, the capillary 

 vessels converge toward the center of the lobule where 

 all meet in a vein the " intra lobular vein" [In.] which is 

 the beginning of the hepatic vein. In Fig. 4 the cells 

 for a short distance from the center are drawn to show 

 their relation in the lobule. This shows how much in- 

 terc'^llular space there is ; it is in this intercellular space 

 that the capillaries are located, and as the blood moves 

 along in these capillaries the cells have an opportunity 

 to take from and give to the moving stream. The spaces 

 between the cells also lodge the ultimate terminal twigs 

 of tlie bile ducts, but these cannot be seen unless the 

 liver has been especially injected through the bile duct. 

 The Hepatic Cells. — In Fig. 3 I have shown in de- 

 tail three of the hepatic cells. The cells are destitute of 

 a distinct wall and their outline is bulging and rounded 

 wiiere it is not in contact with a neighboring cell. Each 

 cell is a little less than a thousandth of an inch in diam- 

 eter, it has a (;onsj)icious circular nucleus, darker in stain 

 and this has a definite circular membrane, and contains 

 a single minute s])herical nucleolus. The protoplasm of 

 the cell stains readily and deeply. The inteicelhilar 

 spaces in thin sections are clearly seen they are not read- 

 ily distinguishable if the sections are thicker tluin the 

 cells. 



