106 BILE. 



cles, a view which, as is well known, was long ago rendered more 

 than probable by E. H. Weber, and more recently by KolUker, 

 by numerous histological investigations of fcetal livers and of foetal 

 blood, as well as of the livers of tadpoles. Although we shall enter 

 more minutely in another place, when treating of tf the blood," 

 into the consideration of the different views that have been 

 promulgated regarding the origin of the blood-corpuscles and the 

 different situations in which they may be formed, yet as the subjects 

 are so closely allied, it may be expedient here briefly to mention 

 the grounds in favour of the above view. Since the consideration 

 that the liver is a permanent factory for blood- cells appears, even 

 to us, to be somewhat paradoxical for many physiological reasons, 

 we shall allow the facts which present themselves as the immediate 

 results of our comparative analyses of the blood of the portal 

 and the hepatic veins, to speak simply for themselves. 



The blood of the hepatic veins contains a far larger number of 

 colourless blood-cells (the so-called lymph-corpuscles) than the blood 

 of the portal vein. They do, however, also occur in the latter, 

 although very scattered, in twos or threes at different points, and 

 they are of nearly equal size, very coarsely granular, and on the addi- 

 tion of acetic acid exhibit a bipartite or tripartite nucleus. In the 

 blood of the hepatic veins they present a very different relation : 

 on an average calculation, their number is at least fivefold that of 

 the colourless cells in the portal vein ; they present extreme dif- 

 ferences in size, varying from l-306th to 1-1 80th of a line ; they have 

 for the most part a very faintly defined outline, are slightly granular, 

 and often resemble colourless yolk-cells ; the smaller ones are 

 usually somewhat more clearly defined, and exhibit dots on their 

 surface ; the larger ones become much swollen in water, but at a 

 certain degree of attenuation appear to collapse ; they then form 

 dark and very prominent granular masses under the capsules of 

 the coloured blood-corpuscles ; the larger colourless cells swell 

 very much on the addition of acetic acid, and then exhibit a single, 

 large, lenticular, excentric nucleus. Moreover, these colourless 

 cells, which are of the most varied sizes, are aggregated in groups 

 of five, six, or seven. 



As we must return to the fuller consideration of the colourless cells, 

 when we treat of "the blood." and shall then, moreover, explain 

 the reasons in support of the view that the red blood-cells are formed 

 from the colourless ones, it will be sufficient simply to mention my 

 own observations regarding these cells, in order to support, from this 

 point of view, the claims of the liver as a blood-forming organ. 



