Chap. XXVII.] 



THE LIVER. 



213 







centre of the acinus. Sometimes the liver cells contain 

 minute pigment granules. 



Each liver cell shows a more or less fibrillated and 

 reticulated protoplasm (Kupfer), and in the centre a 

 spherical nucleus with its reticulum, generally with 

 one or more nucleoli. 

 During activity the 

 liver cells are larger 

 and look more gran- 

 ular than after 

 action. 



The liver cells 

 are joined with one 

 another by an albu- 

 minous cement sub- 

 stance, in which are 

 left fine channels ; 

 these are the bile 



capillaries, or intra- F ^' i* 5 .--* a Lobule of the Liver of 

 lobular bile vessels 

 (Fig. 125). In a 

 successfully injected 

 preparation, the 

 liver cells appear 



separated everywhere from one another by a bile 

 capillary, and tJiese form for the whole acinus a con- 

 tinuous intercommunicating network of minute 

 channels. Where the liver cells are in contact with 

 a capillary blood-vessel, there, of course, are no bile 

 capillaries, since these exist only between liver cells. 



281. At the margin of the acinus the bile capil- 

 laries are connected with the lumen of minute tubes : 

 these possess a membrana propria and a lumen lined 

 with a single layer of transparent polyhedral epithelial 

 cells. These are the small interlobular bile ducts 

 (Fig. 124). Their epithelial cells are in reality con- 

 tinuous with the liver cells. They join so as to form 



Babbit, in which Blood and Bile Vessels 

 had been injected, more highly magnified 

 than in Fig. 124. 



b, Bile capillaries between the liver cells ; these 

 are well shown as nucleated polygonal cells, 

 each with a distinct reticulum; c, capillary 

 Wood-vessels. (Atlas.) 



