684 THE LIVER. 



Its branches are found only in the interstitial connective tissue 

 (see Fig. 303). It furnishes the capillaries around the larger 

 portal veins and bile-ducts, and those supplying the outer capsule 

 of the liver. The capillaries of the interstitial tissue are said, 

 by some authorities, to inosculate directly with the capillaries of 

 the lobule; while others maintain that small veins arise from 

 the interstitial capillaries and unite with the portal veins. 



The lymphatics of tlie liver are found in moderately large 

 numbers in the interstitial tissue and in the capsule. A portion 

 of these vessels leave the liver at the porta, where they form a 

 plexus around the portal veins and the hepatic artery, and 

 another portion issue from the periphery through all peritoneal 

 reduplications, which unite the liver with the adjacent organs. 

 The lymphatics have everywhere endothelial walls of their own. 

 Von Wittich succeeded in injecting the lymphatics of the liver 

 by forcing a concentrated solution of indigo-carmine into the 

 trachea of rabbits recently killed by exsanguination. He saw, 

 besides the above-mentioned plexuses, other plexuses around the 

 hepatic veins, and claims that from the interlobular lymphatics 

 prolongations pass into the lobules between the capillaries and 

 the liver epithelia. 



THE TERMINATION OF THE NERVES IN THE LIVER. 

 BY M. L. HOLBROOK, M. D.* 



As the best histologists have maintained that our knowledge of the termi- 

 nation of the nerves of the liver is very slight and imperfect, I have under- 

 taken, by a careful and extended series of researches, to throw some light 

 on the subject. I have examined livers from the following animals : the 

 dog, cat, woodchuck, owl, crow, hawk, and the ox. I have also examined 

 the livers of a child and of an adult. The methods which I have employed 

 have been the simple carmine-staining of specimens preserved in chromic 

 acid, staining with picro-carmine, osmic acid, and chloride of gold. None 

 of these reagents proved of much value, except the chloride of gold. The 

 use of osmic acid, so highly praised by some observers, in my hands gave 

 no satisfactory results, for, though it makes medullated nerves plainly 

 visible by rendering them black, it has scarcely any effect on non-medullated 

 nerves, and it is these which are to be found in the liver in a far greater 

 number than medullated nerves. Chloride of gold, as usually employed, 

 also failed to give any good results, but in combination with formic acid 

 they were very satisfactory. The suggestion of a combination of chloride 

 of gold and formic acid I learned from Lowitt,t and my method of employ- 



* Printed in abstract from the author's manuscript. 



t " Die Nerveii der glatten Musculatur." Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Akad. d. Wissensch., 

 Ixxi. Bd. 



