494 THE LIVER. [OH. xxxin. 



rapid wasting and the breaking down of the tissues to form an 

 increased quantity of urea. The precise way in which these 

 glands are related to the general body processes is, however, a 

 subject of which we*kno\v as yet very little. The theory at 

 present most in favour is that certain glands produce an internal 

 secretion, which leaves them vid the lymph, and is then dis- 

 tributed to minister to parts elsewhere. The question of the 

 internal secretions of the thyroid and suprarenal capsules is 

 discussed in Chap. XXIII. In the case of the pancreas, Professor 

 Schafer has propounded the theory that its internal secretion, 

 stoppage of which in some " way leads to diabetes, is produced in 

 the islets of epithelium-like cells scattered through the connective 

 tissue of the organ (see fig. 400, p. 487). 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE I.IVER. 



THE Liver, the largest gland in the body, situated in the 

 abdomen on the right side chiefly, is an extremely vascular 



Fig. 403. The under surface of the liver, o. B., gall-bladder ; H. D., common bile-duct ; 

 ii. A., hepatic artery; v. p., portal vein; L. Q., lobulus quadratus ; L. s., lobulus 

 spigelii; i.. c., lobulus caudatus ; D. v.,ductus venosus; u. v., umbilical vein. (Noble 

 Simth.) 



organ, and receives its supply of blood from two distinct 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 



