98 KIERNAN ON THE MINUTE 



so as to make the liver quite red. The minute acini then 

 appeared to him to be formed chiefly of ramified divisions of 

 the biliary ducts, terminating in the acini in a tuft of vessels, 

 which divide without diminishing in size, and "anastomose to- 

 gether so as to form a net-work. They lie close together, and 

 are difficult to be discovered, even with the microscope ; their 

 diameter varies according to Muller, from ^th to y | 5 th part 

 of an inch, but is greater, laowever, than that of the capillary 

 vessels. 



According to Kiernan,* who has investigated this subject 

 with much care, the small granular bodies, so well known to 

 anatomists in the liver under the name of acini, should be 



Fig. 148. f 



called lobules, inasmuch as they are found when examined 

 under the microscope, to be apparently composed of numerous 

 smaller bodies, colored yellow most generally by the bile 

 which they contain. Each of these lobules of Kiernan, (acini 



* Kiernan, on the Anatomy and Physiology of the Liver, Philosophical 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of London, for 1833. p. 



f Fig. 148, represents the interlobular ducts, entering the lobules, and forming 

 the lobular biliary plexuses, a, Two lobules, b, b, b, Interlobular biliary ducts. 

 c, c, c, The interlobular cellular tissue, d, d, The external portions of the 

 lobular biliary plexuses injected, e, e, The intralobular branches of the hepatic 

 vein. /, /, The uninjected central portions of the lobules. Mr. Kiernan, has 

 never injected the lobular biliary plexuses, to the extent represented in the cut. 

 It is, therefore, to be considered rather as a diagram, illustrating the structure, 

 in accordance with the results of his different observations and experiments. 



