THE ALIMENTARY CANAL AND ITS APPENDAGES 457 



The liver is the largest gland in the Body, weighing from 1,400 to 

 1,700 grams (50 to 64 ounces). It is situated in the upper part of 

 the abdominal cavity (k, le', Fig. 1), rather more on the right than 

 on the left side and immediately below the diaphragm, into the 

 concavity of which its upper surface fits, and reaches across the 

 middle line above the pyloric end of the stomach. It is of dark 

 reddish-brown color, and of a soft friable texture. A deep fissure 

 incompletely divides the organ into right and left lobes, of which 



FIG. 133. A lobule of the liver (pig), magnified, showing the hepatic cells 

 radiately arranged around the central intralobular vein, and the connective tissue 

 surrounding the lobule. (Scymonowicz.) 



the right is much the larger; on its under surface (Fig. 132) shal- 

 lower grooves mark off several minor lobes. Its upper surface is 

 smooth and convex. The vessels carrying blood to the liver are 

 the portal vein, Vp, and the hepatic artery; both enter it at a fissure 

 (the portal fissure) on its under side, and there also a duct passes 

 out from each half of the organ. The ducts unite to form the 

 hepatic duct, Dh, which meets at an acute angle, the cystic duct, DC, 

 proceeding from the gall-bladder, Vf, a pear-shaped sac in which 

 the bile, or gall, formed by the liver, accumulates when food is not 



