THE LIVER. 121 



One hundred parts of the water yielded 3*99 of ash, containing 

 especially phosphate of potash, then phosphate of lime, some 

 silica and iron, and chloride of sodium. The protein-substance, 

 insoluble in water, proceeds from the nuclei and membranes 

 of the hepatic cells and from the contents to which we have 

 referred. The albumen partly proceeds from the blood, but 

 certainly from the cells also. Von Bibra found neither kreatin 

 nor kreatinin in the extractive matters; the colouring matter 

 which they contained did not present the same reaction as 

 that of the 'bile, whence Von Bibra draws the conclusion 

 that this ingredient does not exist as such in the cells. 

 Finally, I may advert to the acid reaction of the parenchyma 

 of fresh liver, which I discovered (Art. ' Spleen/ in Todd's 

 Cyclopaedia), and which, in this case, is even more remarkable 

 than in the spleen. Von Bibra also found the watery extract 

 of the Ox's liver to have an acid reaction (I. c. } p. 33), and has 

 demonstrated the existence of lactic acid in it. 



There is no subject of minute anatomy upon which opinions 

 are so various, at the present time, as upon the structure of the 

 secreting parenchyma of the liver ; and yet, with the views which 

 have been expressed in the preceding section, the only ques- 

 tion that can arise is, whether the finest biliary ducts are 

 intercellular spaces, canalicular spaces between the hepatic cells, 

 as Henle and Gerlach consider, or whether they consist of the 

 columns of hepatic cells surrounded by membranes propria. I 

 have endeavoured to show, in my Mikr. Anat. II, p. 221, that 

 these notions are untenable, and that nothing remains but to 

 accept the view which has been offered, however paradoxical, 

 as the only one which at all corresponds with nature.] 



§ 161. 

 Excretory ducts of the liver. — The biliary duct and its 

 branches accompany the vena porta and hepatic artery, so 

 that on one side of a portal branch there is always a much 

 smaller biliary duct and artery, which are included with it in 

 a sheath of connective tissue, the so-called capsule of Glisson. 

 The hepatic ducts ramify, in Man, with the vena porta and may 

 be dissected out for a long distance; and with the microscope they 

 may, in fresh and injected livers, be traced as far as the lobules. 

 Before reaching the latter, they either do not anastomose at all 



