340 



SECRETION. 



Fig. 110. 



of the cell, sometimes more or less obscured by the granules and 

 oil drops with which it is surrounded. 



The exact mode in which these cells are connected with the 

 hepatic duct was for a long time the most obscure point in the 



minute anatomy of the liver. 

 It has now been ascertained, 

 however, by the researches of 

 Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, 1 

 and Dr. Beale, of London, 7 

 that they are really contained 

 in the interior of secreting 

 tubules, which pass off from 

 the smaller hepatic ducts, and 

 penetrate everywhere the 

 substance of the lobules. 

 The cells fill nearly or com- 

 pletely the whole cavity of 

 the tubules, and the tubules, 

 themselves lie in close proxi- 

 mity with each other, so as 

 to leave no space between them except that which is occupied by 

 the capillary bloodvessels of the lobular plexus. 



These cells are the active agents in accomplishing the function of 

 the liver. It is by their influence that the blood which is brought 

 in contact with them suffers certain changes which give rise to the 

 secreted products of the organ. The ingredients of the bile first 

 make their appearance in the substance of the cells. They are 

 then transuded from one to the other, until they are at last dis- 

 charged into the small biliary ducts seated in the interlobular 

 spaces. Each lobule of the liver must accordingly be regarded as 

 a mass of secreting tubules, lined with glandular cells, and invested 

 with a close network of capillary bloodvessels. It follows, there- 

 fore, from the abundant inosculation of the lobular capillaries, and 

 the manner in which they are entangled with the hepatic tissue, 

 that the blood, in passing through the circulation of the liver, 

 comes into the most intimate relation with the glandular cells of 

 the organ, and gives up to them the nutritious materials which are 

 afterward converted into the ingredients of the bile. 



HEPATIC CELLS. From the human subject. 



1 American Journal Med. Sci., January, 1848. 



2 On Some Points in the Minute Anatomy of the Liver. London, 1856. 



