THE LIVER. 687 



chloride of gold. In none of nay large number of specimens have I ever been 

 able to trace a nerve-filament penetrating into an epithelium, as is claimed to 

 occur by E. Pfliiger. Once or twice I observed a peculiar, pear-shaped enlarge- 

 ment of the nerve which seemed to be attached to an epithelium, but it was 

 evidently only a swelled nucleus of a non-medullated nerve, without a real 

 attachment. It often happens that a large non-medullated nerve-fiber ex- 

 hibits an oblong, pear-shaped, nucleus-like formation in the axis of the fiber, 

 whose continuity beyond the nucleus is represented by extremely delicate, 

 beaded axis-fibrillae. 



My researches are in accordance with M. Nesterowskyfs assertions that the 

 blood-vessels of the liver, both the larger vessels of the porta and the capillaries 

 within the lobule of the liver, are accompanied by filaments of nerves. These course 

 in the cement-substance between the walls of the capillaries and the epithelia, and 

 also in the cement-substance between neighboring epithelia, without ever entering 

 the bodies of the latter. As the filaments traversing the cement-substance are 

 formations of living matter the same as the nerve-filaments, and are in connection 

 with the reticulum of living matter in the epithelia, we can, I think, understand 

 how nervous impulses may be transmitted from the nerves by these bridges, the 

 formerly so-called thorns, directly to the epithelia. 



E. Pfliiger* first asserted having seen medullated nerve-fibers reaching the 

 surface of the glandular epithelia in salivary glands and in the liver. Accord- 

 ing to him, the nerves close to the epithelia lose their myeline investment, 

 and are continued as non-medullated nerves penetrating the epithelia and 

 terminating in the nucleus. His assertions have not been corroborated by any 

 observer. I must deny the correctness of all his assertions concerning the 

 termination of the nerves in the liver. 



Kupf er t claims to have seen a few nerves enter the epithelia of the aci- 

 nous glands along the O3sophagus of the blatta (cockroach). As a re-agent he 

 used only the vapor of ammonia. 



M. Nesterowsky,t in his very accurate researches, has found the truth, 

 and I concur with him in his statements, to which I have added a few more 

 facts. This author used the fresh livers of the cat and dog, the blood-vessels 

 of which he injected with colored glue. He used as a re-agent the chloride of 

 gold in different degrees of dilution, and afterward placed the specimens in 

 acetic acid for a few days, adding a drop of ammonia saturated with sulphur- 

 etted hydrogen. 



Pathology. The pathology of the liver offers a wide field for 

 research. This organ is often subject to inflammation, which is 

 either plastic and terminates in a new formation of connective 

 tissue, the so-called cirrhosis, or the inflammation is suppu- 

 rative, resulting in the formation of abscess. Both forms have 

 been studied in my laboratory, as shown by the following articles. 



* " Nachweis der Xervenendiguiigeu in den acinosen Driisen und in der Leber." Ar- 

 chiv fur Physiologic, 1871. 



t " Daa Verhaltniss von Driisennerven zu Diiiseuzelleu." Archiv fiir Microscop. Anato- 

 mie, Bd. ix., 1873. 



t Ueber die Nerven der Leber. Virchow's Archiv, Bd. Ixiii., 1875. 



