530 



SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



tions, readily visible to the naked eye. If a cut surface be scraped 

 with the handle of a scalpel, angular masses of liver, equal in size to 

 these arece, are detached, the capsules which surrounded them remain- 

 ing behind as empty compartments, like a honeycomb. These become 

 still more distinct if a thin section of the liver is gently kneaded with 

 the fingers in water, and then washed and examined on a black ground, 

 in which case many compartments remain almost completely closed, and 

 still more resemble closed capsules. It must not be supposed, however, 

 that there are any complete special investments around each hepatic 

 lobule. On the other hand, the membranes by which they are formed, 

 always appertain to many lobules in common, so that the whole con- 

 stitutes a cellulated substance continuous throughout, whose partitions 



Fig. 218. 



. 219. 



are all simple and cannot be divided into a number of lamellae. If we 

 trace out the capsules, or as they might better be termed, the partitions 

 of the lobes, we find that they are, for the most part, expansions of the 

 connective tissue, which accompanies the vena portce, <fv?., or of the so- 

 called capsule of Glisson, but are also connected with the serous in- 

 vestment of the liver and accompany the larger hepatic veins. Kiernan 

 was the first to take a just view of the relation of the lobules to the 

 hepatic vessels, when he said, that they are seated upon the branches 

 of the hepatic vein, like leaves upon their stalk. In fact we find, if a 

 small branch of the hepatic vein be slit up (Fig. 218, b b b) that it is 



, FIG. 218. Segment of a Pig's liver, with an hepatic vein laid open, somewhat magni- 

 fied: a, large vein, into which as yet no intralobular veins open; 6, its branches, with in- 

 tralobular veins, and the bases of the lobes shining through. After Kiernan. 



FIG. 219. Portal vessel of the Pig, cut open, with its accompanying branches of the he- 

 patic artery and duct. After Kiernan. 



