344 



HEPATIC CELLS. 



[sect. 160. 



arc injected or contain blood, no interspaces between them. No 

 trace of canals containing bile is to be seen in tins network, and 

 these first appear in the periphery of the hepatic islets at the 

 place where the finest branches of the portal vein are situated. 



The hepatic cells, measuring o*oo8" to o'Oii!" in diameter, on 

 an average, and 0'oo6'" to o"oi6'" in extreme instances, become 

 isolated with the greatest facility, and resemble in their form the 

 elements of pavement epithelium, only their shape is more irregular. 

 Their membrane is delicate and completely closed, and their con- 

 tents, in perfectly normal livers (which is seldom the case in man), 

 F . 148 consist, — besides around, 



vesicular nucleus, o , oo3'" 

 to o , oo4'" in size, and a 

 nucleolus, double in many 

 cells, — of a finely granu- 

 lar, slightly yellowish 

 and semi-fluid substance, 

 which, as microscopical 

 examination shows, pro- 

 bably contains the essen- 

 tial elements of the bile. 

 Moreover, there are fre- 

 quently met with fat- 

 drops and yellow pigment granules. The former are present (fig. 

 148, c), in fatty degeneration of the liver, in all the hepatic cells, 

 and in such abundance, that these become very like certain forms 

 of fat-cells. The fat generally completely fills the cells in form of 

 few larger or numerous smaller drops, so that the nucleus becomes 

 invisible. Every transition occurs from these well-pronounced 

 forms to the ordinary cells with some few small globules : and, 

 indeed, cells containing a moderate quantity of fat, occur in a 

 certain number in almost every dead body which is examined ; so 

 that, but for the knowledge that these fat-globules are entirely 

 absent in animals, the phenomenon might, at least in its slighter 

 grades, be considered as quite normal. Almost the same holds 

 good as to the pigment granules (fig. 148, b). They also, when 

 they appear in large quantities, are certainly abnormal; but, on 

 the other hand they may, when more scanty, be regarded as only a 

 slight deviation from the physiological condition. They are small, 

 scarcely exceeding o'ooi'" in diameter, yellow or yellowish-brown, 

 and behave towards re -agents exactly as the colouring matter of 

 the bile deposited within the intestinal canal, seeing that thev 



Hepatic cells of man ; magnified 400 times, a. Normal 

 cells; b. with coloured granules; c. with fat. 



