VESSELS OF THE LIVER. 91 



and it inclines to the left, for want of such suppoi / when we 

 lie on the left side. 



It has been computed, that the liver descends about two 

 inches, when the position of the subject is changed from the hori- 

 zontal to the erect. As it is in contact with the diaphragm, it is 

 obvious that it must be influenced by the motions of that muscle, 

 and that it must descend when the diaphragm contracts. 



The liver is composed of a substance which has some firm- 

 ness of consistence, although it is yielding ; and is also some- 

 what brittle or friable.* When cut into, the sections of many 

 tubes, or vessels of different diameters, appear on the cut 

 surface. When the texture of this substance is more closely 

 examined, it appears somewhat granulated, or composed of 

 very small bodies, which were called acini by the anatomist 

 who first described them. The whole substance is enclosed 

 by the peritoneum, which is extended to it from the surface of 

 the abdomen in the manner that has been already described. 

 It has also a proper coat or capsule ; and on the posterior edge, 

 where the lamina of the lateral ligaments pass from the dia- 

 phragm to the liver, at some distance from each other, a portion 

 of the liver, covered by this coat and by cellular substance, is 

 in contact with the diaphragm. The same thing occurs likewise 

 at the coronary ligament.f 



The liver holds the first place among the glands of the body 

 for size, but it is still more remarkable for some other circum- 

 stances in its economy. In addition to an artery, which passes 

 to it as arteries do to other glands, there is a large vein, (vena 

 portarum,) which also enters it as an artery ; and after rami- 

 fying throughout the liver, communicates, as does the artery, 

 with other veins, which carry the blood from this gland into 

 the vena cava and the general circulation. There are therefore 

 three species of blood-vessels in the liver ; and with these are 



* It has been fractured in the living body by external violence. 



■f Many anatomists deny the existence of this coat ; but if one of the lamina 

 of the ligaments be carefully peeled off from the surface of the liver which is 

 slightly affected by putrefaction, it will be apparent, although very thin. It 

 was described by M. Laennec, in Le Journal de Medicine for 1803. 



