THE ORGANS ANNEXED TO ABDOMINAL DIGESTIVE CANAL. 495 



The anterior face is convex, perfectly smooth, and channelled by a wide and 

 deep fissure for the passage of the posterior vena cava. This fissure extends 

 directly from behind to before, and consequently slightly crosses the general 

 direction of the liver ; near the point where the vena cava leaves the gland 

 to pass through the diaphragm, are seen the openings of the principal sublobular 

 veins. The posterior face is equally smooth and convex, and has also a fissure 

 {the portal), by which the vena portse and the hepatic artery and nerves enter, and 

 by which the biliary ducts emerge from the liver. This groove is slightly con- 

 cave towards the left, and follows the direction of the liver in proceeding obliquely 

 downwards, backwards, and to the left. 



The circumference may be divided into a superior or left, and an inferior or 

 rigid horder, united at both extremities by the ellipsis formed by the liver. The 

 superior hord"r presents, in proceeding from right to left : 1. The insertion of the 

 ligament of the right lobe. 2. The origin of the fissure for the vena cava. 3. 

 A notch for the oesophagus. 4. The insertion of the left ligament. The inferior 

 horder is sharp, and offers two deep notches, which divide the liver into three 

 lobes : a superior or right, an inferior or left, and an intermediate one. The 

 right lobe is usually of medium volume, and has above, on its posterior face, an 

 appendix in the shape of a small secondary lobule of a triangular form, the base 

 of which corresponds to the commencement of the portal fissure : this is the 

 ported lobe, or lobus Spigelii} The left lobe is nearly always the largest. The 

 middle lobe (lobus quadratus), the smallest of the three, is itself divided by 

 secondary notches into several digitations or lobules. 



Relations. — ^Viewing the organ in position, in order to study its general 

 relations, it is found that the anterior face is applied against the diaphragm — a 

 disposition which increases its convexity, while diminishing that of its posterior 

 face ; and that the latter is in contiguity with the stomach, the duodenum, and 

 the diaphragmatic flexure of the colon. 



The connections proper to each lobe are observed to be as follows : 1. The 

 middle lobe corresponds to the centre of the aponeurotic portion of the diaphi'agm. 



2. The left lobe touches the left and inferior part of this aponeurosis, and is 

 prolonged to the corresponding point of the fleshy peripheral band of that muscle. 



3. The right lobe is in contact with the right and superior part of the muscle ; 

 its upper border touches the right kidney ; the pancreas rests against its base, on 

 the posterior face. 



Mode of attachment. — The liver is suspended to the sublumbar wall of the 

 abdomen, by the large blood-vessels which enter its fissures ; and it is also fixed 

 to the posterior face of the diaphragm by four particular bands. One of these is 

 carried from the anterior face of the Uver to the phrenic or tendinous centre, 

 and appears intended to prevent total displacement of the organ ; the other three 

 belong to each particular lobe. 



A. The ligament of the anterior face of the liver (or coronary ligament) comprises 

 two series of very short aponeurotic fibres, which, arising from the two borders of 

 the vena cava fissure, go to be fixed to the posterior face of the phrenic centre. 

 The peritoneum is folded over it on each side, in passing from the diaphragm to 

 the liver. The adherence of these fibres to the walls of the vena cava is extremely 



(' This, according to Flower, should be the caudate, not the Spirjelian lobe ; for he appears 

 to have proved that the free, ear-shaped lobe situated to the ris^ht of the vena portse in the 

 Horse, Rhinoceros, and Tapir, is not the lohus Spigelii, but the caudate lobe — the former being 

 represented by a long, attaclied, transverse ridge of hepatic tissue situated farther to the left.) 



