THE LIVER. 123 



appearance. At the commencement of the cystic duct the 

 glands are few, and in the gall-bladder itself, in which they are 

 said to have been met with, their occurrence is certainly not 

 constant. On the other hand, in the branches of the hepatic 

 duct, down to ~" in diameter, such glands are again met with, 

 many of them opening by a double series of line apertures which 

 exist in these canals. 



[We may refer here to certain peculiar ramifications of the 

 biliary duct, vasa aberrantia (E. H. Weber). They exist: 1. in 

 the lig amentum triangulare sinistrum, as 6 — 10 and more canals 

 0-006 — 0-027'" in diameter, consisting of a fibrous membrane 

 and small cells. Ferrein and Kiernan traced them as far as 

 the diaphragm, though for the most part they only extend to 

 the middle of the ligament, . or not so far, branching out, 

 forming networks, or anastomosing in loops. According to 

 Theile, tolerably large biliary ducts frequently proceed as far as 

 the edge of the left lobe of the liver without entering the trian- 

 gular ligament. 2. Anastomosing biliary ducts are also to be met 

 with in the membranous bridge which unites the Spigelian and 

 right lobes behind the inferior vena cava, also in the mem- 

 branous band which frequently covers the umbilical vein and at 

 the edge of the cystic fossa. 3. In the transverse fissure of 

 the liver, according to E. H. Weber, the right and left branches 

 of the ductus hepaticus and their smaller twigs give off 

 numerous fine ramuscules, which are distributed through the 

 connective tissue of the capsule of Glisson covering the fossa 

 and form a network, which unites the right and left hepatic 

 ducts. Many small branches of these ducts terminate by 

 enlarged ends of J/" — ~ ", and upon their walls a multitude 

 of rounded elevations are met with, which, like the walls of the 

 smallest bronchia, appear to be formed by flattened cells, which 

 have coalesced with the canals and retain wide communica- 

 tions with their cavities. What Weber thus describes as 

 vasa aberrantia, were subsequently described by Theile as glands 

 of the biliary ducts. He says, that the elongated glands are not 

 merely curved in various directions, but divide, the resulting 

 branches re-uniting with one another and with the surrounding 

 glands, as maybe observed in the glands of the coarser and middle 

 sized biliary ducts — especially, also, in the connective tissue of 



