STRUCTURE OF THE LIVER. 



1717 



the cells, the secretion vacuoles are probably due to the coalescence of minute drops 

 of bile, exist only as transient details, and cannot be regarded as constant features of 

 the hepatic cells. Holmgren ^ asserts the existence of ' ' juice-canaliculi ' ' within the 



liver-cells in addition to and inde- 

 FiG. 1450. pendent of the intracellular secretion 



channels. Schafer^ has described 

 nutritive channels within the liver- 

 cells which communicate with the 

 blood-capillaries. 



The intralobular connective 

 tissue, or 7'eticiiliim, consists of deli- 

 cate prolongations of the fibrous tissue 

 of Glisson's capsule which unite the 

 blood-capillaries and cords of liver- 

 cells. This tissue is ver}' meagre 

 in amount and forms a delicate retic- 

 ulum extending between the blood- 

 channels and the glandular elements 

 throughout the lobule, and connects 

 the peripheral fibrous tissue with the 

 perivascular tissue that exists around 

 the central vein. The intralobular 

 connective tissue is so meagre that 

 the liver- cells lie virtually in contact 

 with the capillaries. Irregularly 

 stellate elements, the cells of Kupffer, 

 lie between the capillaries and the 

 hepatic cells. They are probably 

 endothelial plates, derived from the 

 here imperfect walls of the capillary 

 blood-vessels, permuting the blood to gain direct access to the liver-cells. 



The interlobular bile-ducts, which receive the biliary canals that pierce the 

 periphery of the lobule as the outlets of the intralobular net-work, accompany the 



Fibrous tissue 



culuin 



Artificially digested section of liver, showing supporting inter- 

 lobular fibrous tissue and intralobular reticulum. X 230. 



Fig. 



1451- 



^ 



Portal vein 



- 5?\ 





^'^'~>^^r^^^; 





Bile-duct 



Hepatic artery 



Interlobular connectne- 

 tissue 



^ 



'*>. 



O ^'^y 





'^ 





'} 











"^h*. ' 









i 



Hepatic cells 



Section of liver, showing interlobular tissue and vessels. X 160. 



branches of the portal vein and the hepatic artery within the capsule of Glisson. 

 These ducts, from .030-. 050 mm. in diameter, constitute a net-work over the exterior 



^ Anatomischer Anzeiger, Bd. xxii., No. i, 1902. 



* Ibid., Bd. xxi.. No. i, 1901. 



