130 ON FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE LIVER. 



areolae of nearly the same dimensions in whatever plane it is cut. These 

 areolae are in general not larger than the diameter of the vessels which 

 form them, so that a well injected specimen might appear to be compo- 

 sed of little else than vessels. 



In the interstices of this capillary plexus lies the secreting portion of 

 the bile-ducts. If a thin section of an uninjected lobule be examined 

 with a sufficient magnifying power, it is seen to be almost entirely made 

 up of small, irregular, angular particles, each containing a circular or 

 oval nucleus, within which is a minute point or two, the nucleolus. 

 These particles have a determinate outline, are of some thickness, and 

 possess a fine granular aspect. They also contain (which is very re- 

 markable,) one, two, or more globules of fatty matter, irregularly placed, 

 and of somewhat variable bulk, though usually about the size of those 

 represented from the healthy human liver, at Plate III, Div. 6, A. 



We owe the first good description of these nucleated particles to 

 Henle,* who (with Purkinje and Schwann) believes that they correspond 

 with the epithelium found in all other true glands, and that they are the 

 proper glandular element, to which the secretion is due. No one who 

 has extensively examined the minute structure of glands, can well be of 

 a different opinion, though it must be allowed that we are still ignorant 

 of the precise anatomy of the ultimate ramifications of the biliary ducts. 

 The oily globules found in the nucleated particles, appear to have spe- 

 cial reference to the chemical nature of the secretion, which contains a 

 large quantity of highly carbonized matters, that are to be regarded, 

 according to Dr. Prout, as modifications of the oleaginous principle. 

 The nucleated particles of the sebaceous glands also contain fat, and in 

 this respect offer a striking analogy with those of the liver. 



The microscope at once reveals the seat of the fatty deposit in the 

 diseased state of the organ. Instead of containing a few minute scat- 

 tered globules, the nucleated particles are gorged with large masses of it, 

 which greatly augment their bulk, and more or less obscure their nuclei. 

 (See PI. Ill, Div. 6, B.) 



This simple description developes the whole anatomical condition of 

 the disease, as well as explains its rougher characters, the bulk, the 

 colour, and the freedom of the circulation. The particles, lying in the 

 interstices of the capillary plexus, enlarge slowly and equably, in such 



* They have also been examined by other Foreign Anatomists, as well as British. 

 Mr. Erasmus Wilson discovered them in 1838, in the liver of the cat, when as yet 

 the works of Henle were unknown in this country. 



