it may assume a chocolate or purplish brown 
or a slate colour, and if from obstruction to the 
“bile-ducts, a variable shade of yellow. Its 
texture is firm and dense, but extremely fra- 
foc: the fracture presenting a granular appear- 
__ The dimensions of the liver are very consi- 
derable, as may be inferred by recollecting that 
his is the largest organ in the body. Through 
the longest diameter from the extremity of the 
Tight to the edge of the left lobe, it measures 
‘about twelve inches; from before backwards, 
through the transverse diameter of the right 
e, about seven inches, and through the thick- 
st part of the right lobe, in a vertical di- 
ion, about four inches. These measure- 
mts, however, can only be received as an 
oximation to the average, for the size of 
1 Organ varies in different individuals ; thus it 
larger in males than in females, and is more 
ky in persons of sedentary habits than in 
se who are robust and active. Its weight is 
bout five pounds; its relative weight to the 
entire body, as 1 to 36; and the specific gra- 
one half heavier than water. 
ewn that in 100 parts, there are, of 
BONE ae ess ti davies s'.s0e 61.79 
Solid matters ............ 
Of 100 parts of the solid matters, 
71.18 are soluble in water, hot or cold, or 
alcohol; and consist of, osmazome, 
stearine, elaine, resin, oleic and 
margaric acids, gelatine, and sali- 
vine. 
_ 28.72 are insoluble. 
2.034 are salts; viz. chloruret, phosphate of 
potash, phosphate of lime, and 
: oxide of iron. 
Bullocks’ liver, analysed by Braconnot, is, 
according to Berzelius, analogous to the pre- 
seding, the differences being dependent solely 
upon a difference of manipulation. 100 parts 
contain, 
55.50 water. 
_ 44.50 solid matters, composed of, 
Vessels and membranes . .18.94 
Soluble matters 
100 parts of the pulp of liver contained, 
58.64 water. 
20.19 dry albumen. 
6.07 matter very soluble in water ; slight- 
we ly in alcohol ; containing little 
Mt nitrogen. 
- 3.89 fat. 
0.64 chloruret of potash. 
0.47 phosphate of lime containing iron. 
0.10 salt of potash combined with a 
he combustible acid. 
Varieties in the liver may be referred to one 
ftwo heads—varieties in form, and varieties in 
sition. 
Varieties in form occasionally occur, but 
hey are more rare in the liver than in almost 
in} other organ of the body. I have seen the 
eft lobe so small as to appear but a mere ap- 
yendage to the right, being connected to it only 
ya thin and narrow isthmus. Cruveilhier re- 
ords an instance in which the left lobe was 
NORMAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 
163 
attached to the right merely by a vascular pe- 
dicle about half an inch in length; the extre- 
mity of the lobe being adherent to the upper 
pait of the spleen. Deep and narrow grooves 
are occasionally seen upon the convex surface 
of the right lobe running in an antero-posterior 
direction ; they correspond with projecting fasci- 
culi of the diaphragm, and occur generally in 
women who have laced tightly. This surface . 
is also marked frequently in females with deep 
channels, which are formed by the pressure of 
the ribs, and are also the result of tight lacing. 
The liver is sometimes’ constricted in the 
middle from this causg,and a dense fibrous 
band, produced by thickening of the fibrous 
capsule, extends around it like a belt. The 
lobes are occasionally divided by deep fissures 
into several additional lobes ; the liver in this 
case presents a character which is normal 
amongst the lower animals. In a few in- 
stances the fossa for the gall-bladder has been 
found excavated so deeply as to render the 
fundus of the sac apparent through an open- 
ing on the upper surface of the liver, a pecu- 
liarity which is also normal amongst some of 
the lower tribes of animals. 
Varieties of position are more frequent than 
those of diversity of form. During utero-gesta- 
tion the liver is usually pressed considerably 
above its ordinary plane, so as to impede more 
or less the action of the diaphragm and pro- 
duce embarrassed respiration. In an extremely 
fat subject I once saw the diaphragm raised by 
the liver to a level with the fourth intercostal 
space, measured near to the sternum. In its 
natural position the thin margin of the liver 
scarcely reaches the border of the thorax, but 
in women who have laced tightly during youth 
nothing is more common than to find this edge 
forced several inches below the base of the 
thorax, and altered in its form. In these cases 
the direction of the aspects of the organ are 
likewise changed ; the convex surface looks di- 
rectly forwards, instead of upwards and for- 
wards, and lies in contact with the abdomina 
parietes. The concave surface is directed back - 
wards in place of downwards and backwards, 
and the posterior border is forced upwards. 
In a sketch from the subject, now before me, 
the greater part of the convex surface of the 
organ is in contact with the abdominal pa- 
rietes, and the free margin extends into the 
umbilical and lumbar regions. In another 
sketch, as a result of the enormous magnitude 
of the stomach from the same cause, the liver 
is raised almost perpendicularly, the extremity 
of the left lobe being in contact with the dia- 
phragm, and the right lobe in the right iliac 
fossa. A part of the liver has been found in 
the sac* of inguinal and umbilical hernia. 
Various peculiar appearances are observed in 
the liver of the foetus arising from arrest of 
development. Thus, for instance, the entire 
organ, or a part of it, may be situated in the 
chest, or from absence of development of the 
abdominal parietes the liver may form part of 
* Gunzius de Herniis, in Portal’s Anatomie Mé- 
dicale, 
M 2 
