

OF THE LIVER. 577 



transverse fissure to the free border of the liver, where it frequently 

 forms a notch. 



The Fissure for the vena cava is a deep and short fissure, occa- 

 sionally a circular tunnel, which proceeds from a little behind the right 

 extremity of the transverse fissure to the posterior border of the liver, 

 and lodges in the inferior vena cava. 



These five fissures taken collectively resemble an inverted y, the 

 base corresponding with the free margin of the liver, and the apex with 

 its posterior border. Viewing them in this way, the two anterior 

 branches represent the longitudinal fissure on the left, and the fissure 

 for the gall-bladder on the right side ; the two posterior, the fissure for 

 the ductus venosus on the left, and the fissure for the vena cava on the 

 right side, and the connecting bar the transverse fissure. 



Lobes.- The Right lobe is four or six times larger than the left, 

 from which it is separated on the concave surface by the longitudinal 

 fissure, and on the convex by the longitudinal ligament. It is marked 

 upon its under surface by the transverse fissure, and by the fissures for 

 the gall-bladder and vena cava, and presents three depressions, one in 

 front for the curve of the ascending colon, and two behind for the right 

 supra-renal capsule, and kidney. 



The Left lobe is small and flattened, convex upon its upper surface, 

 and concave below, where it lies in contact with the anterior surface of 

 the stomach. It is sometimes in contact by its extremity with the 

 upper end of the spleen, and is in relation by its posterior border with 

 the cardiac orifice of the stomach, and left pneumogastric nerve. 



The Lobus quadratus is a quadrilateral lobe situated upon the under 

 surface of the right lobe : it is bounded in front by the free border of 

 the liver ; behind by the transverse fissure ; to the rigid by the gall- 

 bladder ; and to the left by the longitudinal fissure. 



The Lobus Spigelii* is a small triangular lobe, also situated upon 

 the under surface of the right lobe: it is bounded in front by the 

 transverse fissure; and on the sid.es by the fissures for the ductus veno- 

 sus and vena cava. 



The Lobus caudatus is a small tail-like appendage to the lobus 

 Spigelii, from which it runs outwards like a crest into the right lobe, 

 and serves to separate the right extremity of the transverse fissure from 

 the commencement of the fissure for the vena cava. In some livers 

 this lobe is well marked, in others it is small and ill-defined, 



Reverting to the comparison of the fissures with an inverted V' it 

 will be observed that the quadrilateral interval, in front of the trans- 

 verse bar, represents the lobus quadratus ; the triangular space behind 

 the bar, the lobus Spigelii ; and the apex of the letter, the point of 

 union between the inferior vena cava, and the remains of the ductus 



* Adrian Spigel, a Belgian physician, professor at Padua after Casserius in 

 l6l6. He assigned considerable importance to this little lobe, but it had been 

 described by Sylvius full sixty years before his time. 



2 P 



