THE LIVER 



157 



arterial blood of the hepatic artery is eventually mingled with that of the 

 portal vein, and the whole is conveyed away to the vena cava by a single vessel 

 the hepatic vein. 



Fig. 144. Cross Section of a Lobule. Magnified about 60 diameters. 



i, intralobular vein ; 2, its smaller branches, collecting blood from the capillary network ; 

 3, interlobular branches of the portal vein, with their subdivisions passing inwards towards 

 the capillary network in the substance of the lobule. 



The spaces between the 

 blood-vessels of the liver are 

 filled with minute cells, about 

 one-thousandth of an inch in 

 diameter, called hepatic cells 

 or liver cells. The blood 

 capillaries run between these, 

 and all changes which occur 

 in the blood as it circulates 

 through the liver are brought 

 about by the action of the 

 cells, which are separated 

 from the blood only by the 

 exceedingly thin walls of the 

 capillaries. 



The materials which 

 are separated from the 

 blood in the blood ca- 

 pillaries appear to pass 

 through the liver cells to 

 another set of capillaries 

 which are called the bile 

 capillaries. These unite 



Fig. 145. Diagrammatic Representation of 

 a Lobule in section. The section takes 

 the course of the intralobular vein. 



p, interlobular branches of the portal vein ; h, intra- 

 lobular branches of the hepatic vein ; s, sublobular 

 vein. The arrows indicate the direction of the course 

 of the blood. The liver cells are represented in part 

 only. 



