692 THE LIVEE. 



granules are seen connected by delicate filaments with neighboring granules. 

 In some places the fatty metamorphosis reaches high degrees, invading sin- 

 gle epithelia, the remnants of which are found around the fat-globule. This 

 process, however, is apparently not very common ; more frequently, by coa- 

 lescence of several epithelia, multinuclear bodies arise, which are in part or 

 wholly transformed into fat, or the division of the body into irregular medul- 

 lary elements has already been accomplished before the fatty metamorphosis 

 had started. The manner in which the fatty change proceeds is as follows : 

 Some of the coarse granules in the epithelia assume a peculiar, dull luster, 

 and their contours become indistinct ; then a number of fat-granules appear 

 in an epithelium, but what their further changes are I am unable to tell. 

 (See Fig. 309.) 



Where several epithelia coalesce by a liquefaction of the cement-sub- 

 stance, it is certain also that a number of bile-capillaries perish. In other 

 places, on the contrary, the ledges of the cement-substance are considerably 

 widened, and we may safely conclude that a secretory activity of the epi- 



FIG. 308. BOUNDARY OF A LOBULE OF A CIRRHOTIC LIVER 

 TOWARD THE INTERSTITIAL TISSUE. 



L, liver epithelia; .Ri, Ji\ spindle-shaped remnants of liver epithelia; C, row of medullary 

 corpuscles, probably arisen from a former blood-vessel ; BI, B>, bile-ducts in cross-section. 

 Magnified 500 diameters. 



thelia is possible up to the time when they are transformed into medullary 

 corpuscles. Thus we can understand why the secretion of bile is interfered 

 with in the highest degrees of cirrhosis only. 



Larger bile-ducts are sometimes found in abundance in the interstitial 

 connective tissue, and they may be recognized as such so long as their 

 epithelium remains unchanged. Should this epithelium proliferate, in con- 

 sequence of the endogenous outgrowth of living matter, it becomes impos- 

 sible to distinguish between bile-ducts and similarly changed blood-vessels. 

 I could never discover any new formation of bile-ducts, although it. has been 

 maintained by some authors that such a formation does occur. 



