100 



KIERNAN ON THE MINUTE 



Fig. 150.* 



to have no communication with the veins, and hence it is diffi- 

 cult to inject these plexuses with mercury or size, since they 

 generally contain bile that has no place of escape, and which 

 prevents the injecting fluid in ordinary cases from filling 



minutely the lobular plexuses. The 

 minute space between these anasto- 

 c mosing ducts, he considers identical 

 witii the acini of M-alpighi, which 

 this anatomist has but obscurely 

 described ; and which, moreover when 

 examined through the microscope, 



have likewise the appearance of the cells delineated by Mascagni. 

 The lining membrane of the hepatic ducts, like other mucous 

 membranes, possesses many mucous follicles, as seen in fig. 

 Fig. 151f. 151. They are here arranged in rows, and from 

 them is derived all the mucus that is admixed 

 with the bile. In each lobule, the portal veins 

 ramify, as seen in fig. 149, among the branches 

 of the biliary plexus, and finally terminate near 

 the centre of each lobule in the hepatic veins. 

 The hepatic veins are very peculiar. A branch 

 arises from the centre of each lobule, as seen 

 in fig. 152 ; and each intralobular branch divides 

 into several capillary filaments, to receive the 

 blood of the portal branches, so that each lobule seems to be 

 placed upon one of the branches of the hepatic veins, as a leaf 

 upon its central stem. 



Each of these branches opens by a minute orifice, directly into 

 one of the divisions of the venae cavae hepaticae, this system of 

 veins having no cellular sheath or capsule surrounding it, as is 

 the case with the vena porta, but is directly in contact, through- 

 out its whole course in the liver with the bases of the lobules. 



* 150, a, A transverse section of a lobule, b, The divided central intralobular 

 vein, c, The small veins, terminating in a central vein. 



t Fig. 151, represents the internal surface of a small hepatic duct, with its 

 follicles arranged in two longitudinal lines. 



