FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 267 



origin of the hepatic canaliculi, seem to show a connection 

 between the large hepatic cells and the biliary organs, which 

 is, perhaps, closer than that indicated by Kiiss, Morel, Hand- 

 field Jones, and Ch. Robin (Diet, de Nysten). The agree- 

 ment of the results obtained by numerous histologists, in 

 France (Robin, Legros, Cornil), as well as in other countries 

 (Gerlach, Andrejevie, MacGillavry, Chronszewsky, Tiering, 

 Eberth, etc.), obliges us to consider these researches of im- 

 portance, and we shall find that physiological data correspond 

 with these results. 1 



Lereboullet was, 2 1853, convinced by his experiments on 

 the fatty liver, that the origins of the biliary tubes are simply 

 empty spaces which are arranged in series (intercellular 

 meati}, hollowed out between the cells: these empty spaces 

 are entirely accidental, and would be produced in anatomical 

 preparations by the passage of the injected matters. 



These spaces have been the subject of much investigation : 

 they are known by the name of biliary capillaries, or intra- 

 lobular canaliculi. Kolliker, as well as the other histologists 

 whom we have mentioned, has succeeded in distinguishing 

 them, and considers them to be simply intercellular lacunce 

 having no proper coats, or being covered only with a sort of 

 cuticle which Kolliker looks upon as belonging to the cells 

 between which the lacuna is situated : " I should prefer to 

 consider this cuticle as a cellular membrane, and to say that 

 it is more developed in the region of the biliary capillaries 

 than in any other part." (French trans. 1870, p. 5G8.) 



According to some anatomists (MacGillavry, Frey), these 

 canaliculi are furnished with a coat of their own, the large 

 hepatic cells being situated outside ; Legros' researches show 

 that this coat is lined with a pavement epithelium. We are 

 finally brought back to the idea of a biliary gland, which is 

 quite distinct from the vascular blood gland, although the 

 mutual association between these two organs appears much 

 closer than the researches made five or six years ago would 

 lead us to suppose. "In the interlobulnr ducts the epithe- 

 lium is more distinctly columnar than in the branches of the 

 hepatic duct properly so called: but in the intralobular 

 canaliculi, it is a true pavement of small cells, which, by 

 their proximity to the secretory canaliculi, form the coats 



1 Lereboullet, " Memoire sur la Structure intime du Foie et sur 

 la Nature de 1' Alteration coiinue sous le Nom de Foie Gras." 

 Paris, 1853, in 4to. 



