CEPHALOPODA. 



537 



for it is divided into four lobes, and these are 

 connected by a fifth portion, which passes 

 transversely below the fundus of the crop. 

 All these larger divisions are subdivided into 

 numerous lobules of an angular form, which 

 vary in size from three to five lines. These 

 lobules are immediately invested by a very 

 delicate capsule, and are more loosely sur- 

 rounded by a peritoneal covering common to 

 this gland and the crop. 



The liver is supplied by large branches 

 which are given off from the aorta, (r,Jig. 219,) 

 as that artery winds round the bottom of the 

 sac to gain the dorsal aspect of the crop. It is 

 from the arterial blood alone, in this, as in 

 other Mollusks, that the secretion of the bile 

 takes place, there being but one system of 

 veins in the liver, corresponding to the hepatic, 

 which returns the blood from that viscus, and 

 conveys it to the vena cava at its termination. 

 The colour of the liver is a dull red with a 

 violet shade ; its texture is pulpy and yielding. 

 When the capsule is removed by the forceps, 

 the surface appears under the lens to be mi- 

 nutely granular or acinous, and these acini 

 are readily separable by the needle into clusters 

 hanging from branches of the bloodvessels and 

 duct. The branches of the duct arising from 

 the terminal groupes of the acini, form, by 

 repeated anastomoses, two main trunks, which 

 unite into one at a distance of about two lines 

 from the laminated or pancreatic cavity. 



There appears to be one example in the 

 Dibranchiate Order where the liver is divided 

 into four lobes, as in the Nautilus ; this occurs, 

 according to Dr. Grant, in the Loligopsis 

 guttata ; but in the figure which is given of 

 this structure the lobes are each distinct 

 from the rest, and divided at the middle 

 line ; while in the Nautilus the four lobes are 

 united together. Rathke', on the contrary, 

 who has given an elaborate account of the 

 Anatomy of Loligopsis under the name of 

 PerothiSj* describes and delineates the liver, 

 in the two species of that genus dissected by 

 him, as a simple undivided viscus, of an ellip- 

 soid figure, situated in the middle line of the 

 body (12,/g. 223). In Onychoteuthis Banksii 

 die liver is a single elongated laterally com- 

 pressed lobe, obtuse and undivided at both 

 extremities. In the Sagittated Calamary it is 

 single, elongated, and cylindrical. In Sepia 

 and Rossia it is divided into two lateral lobes, 

 both of which are notched at the upper extre- 

 mity. In the Argonaut the two lobes are 

 united for a considerable extent along the 

 mesial line, but are greatly produced laterally, 

 and advance forwards, narrowing towards a 

 point, so as partially to enclose the alimentary 

 canal. In Octopus the liver is a single oval 

 mass, flattened anteriorly. In Eledone it pre- 

 sents a spherical form, corresponding to the 

 ventricose form of the visceral sac. In the two 

 latter genera the ink-bag is enclosed within the 



nr)petQri<;, mutilatus, a name applied to this 

 genus by Eschschoitz, in consequence or the gene- 

 rally mutilated condition of the tentacles. See 

 Mem. de 1'Acad. Imp. de Petersbourg. torn. ii. pt. 

 1 & 2, p. 149. 

 VOL. I. 



Fig. 223. 



capsule of the liver, but in the Argonaut and in 

 all the Decapodous genera this is not the case. 

 The proper capsule of the liver is very delicate, 

 and apparently nothing more than the outer ter- 

 mination of the cellular tissue which connects 

 the lobules of its parenchyma. When this is 

 inflated from the biliary ducts, it is seen to be 



composed of cells, 

 formed by the ulti- 

 mate ramifications of 

 the duct, with very 

 thin parietes, and re- 

 latively larger than 

 those of the liver of 

 the Snail. This is the 

 structure observable 

 in the liver of the 

 Octopus, according 

 to Muller,* and 

 Rathke' observed the 

 same structure in 

 the terminal coeca of 

 the hepatic duct in 

 Loligopsis. 



In the Octopo- 

 dous Dibranchiates, 

 which have a large 

 crop, and the lower 

 pair of salivary 

 glands of corres- 

 pondingly large di- 

 mensions, the two 

 biliary ducts are 

 simple canals, which 

 are continued from 

 the lower end of the 

 liver, embracing the 

 origin of the intes- 

 tine, and uniting be- 

 low it to terminate 

 by a common orifice 

 in the pyloric ap- 

 pendage . But in the 

 Decapodous tribe 

 they continue to send 

 Viscera in situ, Loligopsis. off branches, which 

 Lol. Eschscholtxii. subdivide and form 

 clusters of ccecal appendages, through a greater 

 or less proportion of their entire course. The 

 follicles thus appended to the biliary ducts 

 are larger than those which form the liver ; they 

 are figured by Monro in the Loligo sagittate 

 as the ovary, but were considered by Mr. 

 Hunter to represent the pancreas in the Cuttle- 

 fish, from which species he took the preparation 

 of these parts in his collection.f These folli- 

 cles are described with much care and detail 

 by Rathke in the genus Loligopsis, and, ac- 

 cording to him, in one species (10, Jig. 223), 

 (Lol. Eschschoitz ii,) they terminate, not in the 

 hepatic duct, but separately and directly in the 

 pyloric appendage. We have found these 

 cystic follicles appended to the hepatic duct in 

 Sepiola, Onychoteuthis, Sepioteuthis, and in 

 the genus Rossia, in which they present the 

 largest proportional development hitherto ob- 



* De Glandularum Struct. Pen. p. 71. 

 t See No. 775, Physiological Catalogue, 4to. 

 vol. i. p. 229. 



2 N 



