BILE 



213 



minute passages are the bile canaliculi. The bile 



manufactured by the hepatic cells finds its way first into 

 these minute passages, and from tliem into the ducts. 



16. The Work of the Liver. Its Glycogenic Func- 

 tion. — The work of the liver, and this, as has been said, 

 is carried out by the hepatic cells, may be considered as 

 consisting of two kinds. 



On the one hand, the hepatic cells are continually en- 



FiG. 66.— Termination of Bile Duct at Edge of Lobule (somewhat 

 diagrammatic). 



6, small bile duct, becoming still smaller at b', the low, flat epithelium 

 at last suddenly changing into the hepatic cells, I, the channel of the bile 

 duct being continued as small passages between the latter, c. capillary 

 blood-vessel cut across. 



gaged in the manufacture of a complex fluid called bile, 

 which they pour into the minute passages spoken of 

 above, and thence into the branches of the hepatic duct ; 

 whence it flows through the duct itself into the intestines, 

 or, when digestion is not going on and the opening of 

 the duct into the intestine is closed, back to the gall- 

 bladder. The materials for this bile are supplied to the 



