THE LIVER. 



679 



The meshes of the bioplasson reticulum of the liver epithelia, 

 shortly after administration of fatty food, contain fat-granules 

 and sometimes brown pigment-granules (of the bile!), especially 

 in the vicinity of the bile- capillaries ; a diffused brownish pig- 

 ment is invariably present. The cement-substance holds, as will 

 be shown later, the terminal nerve-flbrillae. At the border next 

 to the capillary wall a light rim is visible, traversed by delicate 

 filaments, which directly unite the 

 bioplasson reticulum of the epi- 

 thelium with that of the endo- 

 thelial wall of the capillary. 



The bile-capillaries were first 

 described by J. G-erlach, and, as 

 mentioned before, are excava- 

 tions in the cement-substance be- 

 tween the epithelia, always at the 

 surface of the epithelium, oppo- 

 site to the place which comes in 

 contact with the capillary the 

 point, therefore, of the least 

 pressure. By some authors they 

 are termed intra-lobular bile- ves- 

 sels, while those called the inter-lobular bile-vessels, and running 

 between the lobules of the liver, correspond to the bile-ducts. 

 The bile-capillaries are destitute of an epithelial investment, and 

 are also without a structureless wall of their own. Their loca- 

 tion being between two neighboring epithelial surfaces (see Fig. 

 298), a portion of the bile- capillary is surrounded and enclosed 

 by the cement-substance, while other parts of its circumference 

 are in direct communication with the interior of the adjacent 

 epithelia that is, with the meshes of the bioplasson reticulum. 

 Thus, it becomes intelligible that, by an active contraction of this 

 reticulum, the newly formed bile is forced into the place of the 

 least resistance and pressure i. e., the bile-capillary. 



Successful injections of colored gelatine into the bile-capil- 

 laries, by E. Hering, prove that in the rabbit's liver all these 

 vessels pursue a course corresponding to the middle of the 

 epithelial surface, and I can, from my own observations, cor- 

 roborate the statements of Hering. In the top view, the hexagonal 

 epithelia appear to be surrounded by a rim of injected colored 

 material, and it is only the darker dots in the middle of a 

 colored line, corresponding to the middle of an epithelial sur- 



FIG. 298. LIVER EPITHELIA OF 

 THE RABBIT. [PUBLISHED BY H. 

 CHR. MULLER IN 1876.] 



OS, cement-substance between the epi- 

 thelia ; BC, bile-capillary excavated in the 

 cement-substance. Magnified 1200 diame- 

 ters. 



