CHAPTER XXXV 



THE LIVER 



THE Liver, the largest gland in the body, is an extremely vascular 

 organ, and receives its supply of blood from two sources, viz., from 

 the portal vein and from the hepatic artery, while the blood is 

 returned from it into the vena cava inferior by the hepatic veins. 



o.v, 



FIG. 361. The under surface of the liver. G. B., Gall-bladder ; H. D., common bile-duct ; H. A., hepatic 

 artery ; v. p., portal vein ; L. Q., lobulus quadratus ; L. s., lobulus spigelii ; L. c., lobulus caudatus ; 

 D. v., ductus venosus ; u. r., umbilical vein. (Noble Smith.) 



Its secretion, the Hie, is conveyed from it by the hepatic duct, either 

 directly into the intestine, or, when digestion is not going on, into 

 the cystic duct, and thence into the gall-bladder, where it accumu- 

 lates until required. 



The liver is in origin a tubular gland, but as development pro- 

 gresses it soon loses all resemblance to the tubular glands found 

 elsewhere. It is made up of small roundish or oval portions called 

 lobules, each of which is about ^V of an inch (about 1 mm.) in 

 diameter, and composed of the liver cells, between which the blood- 

 vessels and bile-vessels ramify. The hepatic cells (fig. 364), which 

 form the glandular or secreting part of the liver, are of a spheroidal 



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