THE LIVER. 



545 



natc branches, take for the most part a remarkable, corkscrew-like, 

 coiled course, repeatedly anastomosing, and thus spread over the whole 

 surface of the organ, as far as the great venous trunks [ve^ice hepatica', 

 vena portcc, cai'a inferior)^ i\ve fossce of the liver and its edges, as an 

 elegant arterial network. In the end, these arteries everywhere form 

 a capillary plexus Avith wide meshes, from whence, in many parts — 

 whether universally or not I do not know — veins arise, which run back 



Fisr. 224. 



parallel with the arteries, enter the liver and open into the portal 

 branches. Portal radicles, or vence adveJientes capsidares, must be de- 

 rived, therefore, from this region also. The arteries and veins of the 



7 7 o 



hepatic coats are in their terminal expansion connected, on the one 

 hand, with prolongations of the internal mammary, phrenic, cystic and 

 even the right suprarenal and renal vessels (Theile), and anastomose, on 

 the other side, in the hepatic /oss«, with those of Glisson's capsule, with 

 the vena cava and hepatic vein. 



3. Hanii lohulares. — With every interlobular vein there runs a branch 

 of the 'hepatic artery, of at most ih of a line in diameter (Theile), 

 which, in the Pig, divides between the hepatic islets, in the capsules of 

 the lobules, into fine anastomosing twigs, and is directly connected with 

 the peripheral part of the capillary network of the hepatic islets or 

 lobules, formed, as stated above, by the portal vein. Arterial blood, 

 therefore, takes a part, although, perhaps, a minor one, in the prepara- 

 tion of the bile, and the hepatic artery is thus distinguished from the 

 bronchial arteries, whose blood is carried away by special veins. 



The lymphatics of the liver are very numerous, and may be divided 

 into superficial networks, under the peritonemn ; and deep vessels, 



Fig. 22 i. — Arterial network upon tlie convex surface of a childs liver. Natural size. 



35 



