382 STRUCTURE AND PATHOLOGY 



that duct — a diaphragm formed by a portion of the primary 

 cell-wall stretching across the pedicle. When the bile in the 

 group of included cells is fully elaborated, the diaphragm 

 dissolves or gives way, the cells burst, and the bile flows along 

 the ducts ; the acinus disappearing, and making room for a 

 neiuhbourinw acinus, which has in the meantime been advanc- 

 ing in a similar manner. The whole parenchyma of the liver, 

 then, is in a constant state of change — of development, 

 maturity, and atrophy — this series of changes being directly 

 proportioned to the profuseness of the secretion of bile. I find 

 myself anticipated by Mr. Bowman in regard to one of the 

 morbid conditions of the human liver — namely, the fatty liver ; 

 and have much pleasure in confirming that gentleman's obser- 

 vations {Lancet, Jan. 1842), as to the fat being deposited 

 within the nucleated cells of the organ, and to be considered, 

 in fact, as a redundancy of the oil-globules naturally existing 

 in these cells. As in the kidney, so in the liver, contractile 

 fibrous tissue may be developed, and produce partial or com- 

 plete atrophy. Dr. Carswell had already indicated this as 

 existing in cirrhosis. The matter, of which the rounded 

 masses in cui-hosis consists, is not a new deposit, but merely 

 the natural tissue of the liver, altered by the pressure exerted 

 by their fibrous envelopes. These alterations consist in con- 

 striction, more or less powerful, of the vessels and ducts 

 w^hich pass out and in to the rounded mass, the necessary 

 difliculty with which the circulation is carried on, and the 

 bile advanced along the ducts ; and, latterly, in a change in 

 the constitution of the nucleated cells themselves, which, 

 instead of being distended with bile containing oil-like 

 globules, contain matter of a darker colour, and less oil. 

 The cells may at last contain matter perfectly black, and then 

 the rounded mass assumes the appearance of a melanotic 

 tubercle, the black cells in some instances becoming pjTiform 

 and caudate. I am inclined to believe that the forms of 



