niE LIVER: ITS SITUATION. 49 



ral, but pertinent remarks on the present received mode of ^Jeating the disor- 

 ders incident to the several parts that impede those functions, reserving par- 

 ticulars regarding the causes, sympsoms, and method of cure, to a subsequent 

 part of the volume. Consult the Index. 



52. The Liver is a very important and immensely large glandular body ol 

 a dusky red colour, almost divided, like the lungs, into two lobes, having two 

 smaller subdivisions; and is attended by its pancreas or sweetbread, a small 

 flat part thereof, which has the property of secreting a sweet kind of saliva. 

 This secretion was noticed before, as entering the gut near the stomach, along 

 with the bile from the liver: both are therefore conveniently situated under- 

 neatt the stomach and behind the midriff^ to the skirt of which the upper 

 part ?{ the liver is attached ; but the exact functions of this pancreas, or its 

 diseases, are no farther known to us, except that it partakes a good deal the 

 appearance of its joint neighbour, and that it is indeed sweet to the palate. 



Before he proceeds farther, the reader had better consult the place of a skele- 

 ton as to the situation and extent of this important organ (important in a 

 curative point of view), as relates to the midriff, stomach, and kidneys, where 

 it will be seen included between the squares marked K — N ais intersected by 

 the lines numbered 21 — 27. The side view therein presented is necessarily 

 the left or near side, but the other lobe or right is of greater length and more 

 substance, it touches the right kidney, and its upper surface is contiguous to 

 the diaphragm, which presses upon it at each inspiration of the lungs. This 

 tendency of the liver to the right side seems to have been designed by nature 

 to counterbalance the leftward position of the heart, and of the lower part of 

 the stomach ; the pyloric orifice of which is seen at the intersection of the 

 lines K and 26. In a former page (sec. 27.), 1 took occasion to describe the 

 minute glands with which the extremities are furnished, and to advert to the 

 secretory glands, all which are formed by arteries that deposit their contents, 

 and which is again taken up into the veins; but the liver, the largest of all 

 glands, and a secretory organ, differs from the others in one great and signal 

 respect : it is formed of an assemblage of veins only. Its structure, in other 

 respects, is much the same as that of the smaller glands. 



Into the liver is brought the blood which has been sent from the heart to 

 circulate and nourish the whole system (except a portion which the kidneys 

 attract) ; a service that is performed by means of a great blood-vessel they 

 call vena porta, that passes along the right side of the spine. In size very 

 large, and always filled in health, a sight of this vessel shows how busily em- 

 ployed the liver must be, in separating from so great a quantity of blood the 

 tiitter qualities it has obtained by having passed through the animal's system, 

 and imbibed whatever might there lurk of the offensive, the diseased, or the 

 infectious. It proves, also, that any disease with which it may be attacked, 

 must be proportionably violent in its progress, and tedious to cure, inasmuch 

 as both will depend upon the state every other viscus may be in, through 

 which the blood happens to have passed. Are the kidneys, or either of them, 

 inflamed? the blood which has recently passed through them comes to the 

 liver to get rid of its noisomeness, in the form of bile. Is an abscess to be 

 dispersed, and the acrid matter driven from the part, to be taken up by th« 

 lymphatics (see sect. 29), at the liver it is strained off, and here must be im- 

 parted a portion of its baleful quaUties. It follows of course, that whatever 

 medicine is directed towards the liver must go thither by means of the circu- 

 ^ation, i, e. through the absorbents : for schirrous liver this is best accom- 

 plished by the lymphatics ; for inflamed liver by means of the lacteals ; ir 

 other words, these are the internal and the external modes of exhibition, and 

 the preparations of mercury are here mostly kept in view. 



I'he secretion of too mu-'h bile, and the consequent inability of the vessel* 

 6» 



