160 



THE BODY AT WORK 



into capillaries, or, to speak more accurately, into sinuses, or 

 pseudo-capillaries, in the liver. The blood, whether conveyed 

 to the organ by the hepatic artery or by the portal vein, is 



oi Hepatic Artery 



To Hepatic Vein, and Vena Cat/a. 



FIG. 7. DIAGRAM OP A LOBULE OP THE LIVER DIVIDED VERTICALLY THROUGH ITS Axis. 



In its centre is a space, the intralobular vein, through which the blood falls into a branch of the 

 hepatic vein, on its way to the heart. An interlobular branch of the portal vein, which 

 brings the blood from the digestive organs, pours it by many smaller vessels over the 

 surface of the lobule. It niters into the lobule through innumerable pseudo-capillary 

 vessels, or spaces, between the radiating columns of liver-cells. Arterial blood is brought 

 to the lobule by a twig of the hepatic artery. Bile is drained away from it by an affluent 

 of the hepatic duct. In the lower part of the diagram seven liver-cells are shown, forming 

 a divided column, magnified about 300 diameters. The cells are loaded with glycogen, and 

 contain minute globules of fat. Red blood-corpuscles and two leucocytes are seen between 

 the columns of liver-cells. One of the leucocytes has ingested two blood-corpuscles. 



