STRUCTURAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 



51 v 



Hepatic artery, 

 Portal vein. 

 Hepatic veins, 



Hepatic ducts, 

 Lymphatics. 



The Hepatic artery, portal vein, and Jiepatic duct enter the liver at the 

 transverse fissure, and ramify through portal canals to every part of the 

 organ ; so that their general direction is from below upwards, and from 

 the centre towards the circumference. 



The Hepatic veins commence at the circumference, and proceed from 

 before backwards, to open into the vena cava, on the posterior border of 

 the liver. Hence the branches of the two veins cross each other in their 

 course. 



The portal vein, hepatic artery, and hepatic duct are moreover enve- 

 loped in a loose areolar tissue, the capsule of Glisson, which permits them 

 to contract upon themselves when emptied of their contents ; the hepatic 

 veins, on the contrary, are closely adherent by their parietes to the surface 

 of the canals in which they run, and are unable to contract. By these 

 characters the anatomist is enabled, in any section of the liver, to distin- 

 guish at once the most minute branch of the portal vein from an hepatic 

 vein : the former will be found more or less collapsed, and always accom- 

 panied by an artery and duct, and the latter widely open and solitary. 



The Lymphatics of the liver are described in the Chapter dedicated to 

 those vessels. 



The Nerves of the liver are derived from the systems both of animal 

 and organic life ; the former proceed from the right phrenic and pneumo- 

 gastric nerves, and the latter from the hepatic plexus. 



Structure and Minute Anatomy of the Liver. 



The Liver is composed of lobules, of a connecting medium called Glis- 

 son's capsule, of the ramifications of the portal vein, hepatic duct, hepatic 

 artery, hepatic veins, lymphatics, and nerves, and is enclosed and retained 

 in its situation by the peritoneum. 



The Lobules are small granular bodies, of about the size of a millet 

 seed, of an irregular form, and presenting a number of rounded prorni- 



Fig. 228 * 



Fig. 229.f 



* The lobules of the liver. The lobules as they are seen upon the surface of the. 

 liver, or when divided transversely. 1. The intralobular vein in the centre of each 

 lobule. 2. The interlobular fissure. 3. The interlobular space. 



f A longitudinal section of two lobules. 1. A superficial lobule, terminating abruptly, 

 and resembling a section at its extremity. 2. A deep lobule, showing the foliated ap 

 poarance of its section. 3. The interlobular vein, with its converging venules ; the vein 

 terminates in a sublobular vein. 4. The external, or capsular surface of the lobule 



