THE LIVER. 



131 



these vessels, which have a diameter in the adult of ^ — ^", in 

 children as much as ~", break up into 3 — 5 radiated subordi- 

 nate branches, take for the most part a remarkable, corkscrew- 

 Fig. 224. 



like, coiled course, repeatedly anastomosing, and thus spread 

 over the whole surface of the organ, as far as the great venous 

 trunks (vena hepaticce, vena porta, cava inferior), the fossce of 

 the liver and its edges, as an elegant arterial network. In 

 the end, these arteries everywhere form a capillary plexus 

 with wide meshes, from whence, in many parts — whether 

 universally or not I do not know — veins arise, which run back 

 parallel with the arteries, enter the liver and open into the 

 portal branches. Portal radicles, or venae advehentes capsulares, 

 must be derived, therefore, from this region also. The arteries 

 and veins of the hepatic coats are in their terminal expansion 

 connected, on the one hand, with prolongations of the internal 

 mammary, phrenic, cystic and even the right suprarenal and 

 renal vessels (Theile), and anastomose, on the other side, in 

 the hepatic fossce, with those of Glisson's capsule, with the 

 vena cava and hepatic vein. 



3. Rami lobular es. — With every interlobular vein there runs 

 a branch of the hepatic artery, of at most ^" in diameter, 



Fig. 224. Arterial network upon the convex surface of a child's liver. Natural 

 size. 



