NORMAL ANATOMY OF THE LIVER. 
in a living animal so as to resemble an hour- 
glass. Andral thinks that he has perceived 
muscular fibres in the hypertrophied coats of 
the gall-bladder, and Ferrus records a case as 
occurring to Amussat where, in obstruction to 
the ductus choledochus by a gall-stone, the 
middle coat of the gall-bladder and ducts above 
the impediment was evidently muscular. This 
preparation was seen by Kiernan at the time 
that it occurred. The bile during its stay in 
the gall-bladder becomes inspissated by the 
removal of the tluid part of the secretion, which 
is Most probably taken up by the numerous 
lymphatics which cover its suriace. 
he uses of the bile are threefold; 1. it acts 
chemically upon the chyme and produces the 
Separation of the chyle; 2. it combines with 
the residuum and forms the fecal matter ; 3. 
it stimulates the mucous surface of the canal 
and promotes its secretion, and the contractile 
action of the muscular coat. 
_Red and yellow substances of Ferrein.— 
Since the period when anatomists were di- 
vided in their considerations of the liver by the 
two great contending opinions of Malpighi 
and Ruysch, the former maintaining its com- 
position of glands, and the latter of mi- 
nute vessels, the majority of observers have 
adopted the views proposed by Ferrein, who 
was the first to vindicate the existence of two 
distinct substances, which he named cortical 
and medullary. It was reserved for Kiernan 
im Our own day to prove that “ the structure 
of all the lobules is similar;” that “each lo- 
bule is the same throughout ; ” that “ one part 
of a lobule is not more vascular than another ;” 
and that “there is, therefore, no. distinction 
of red and yellow substances in the liver; the 
red colour results from congestion only.” This 
doctrine being now established as an undis- 
puted truth, it is not surprising to observe that 
anatomists and pathologists differed in opinion 
with regard to the relative position and appear- 
ance which these two imaginary substances 
occupied in the respective livers which they 
chanced to examine, and upon which they 
established their decision. Thus we find that 
Ferrein described the medullary substance as 
being red in colour, and of a pulpy con- 
Sistence, and the cortical as friable in its struc- 
ture, and of a yellowish red colour. Auten- 
rieth, on the contrary, found the red substance 
to be cortical and the yellow medullary. 
Mappes having obtained a liver in a different 
State of congestion, conceives that the yellow 
substance might be named granulated ; he de- 
cribes it as forming convolutions, one while 
like intestines, and another while branched, 
flat, or rounded; and the spaces between the 
convolutions as being rounded, or resem- 
bling oblong fissures filled with a brownish 
and loose substance. Meckel coincides with 
Mappes in the relative position of these parts ; 
they are not, he says, placed as in the brain, 
One on the exterior, the other in the interior, 
but they alternate throughout the entire organ, 
the yellow substance forming the mass of the 
liver, and the byown filling the interspaces. 
Rudolphi objects to the terms medullary and 
181 
cortical. Bouillaud asserts that the yellow sub- 
Stance presents itself in the form of granu- 
lations having the figure, colour, and arrange- 
ment of the secreting granules of the bile 
known, as he remarks, under the name of 
acini. These granules, he says, are surrounded 
by the brown substance, which therefore as- 
sumes an angular appearance; it is composed 
of a vascular net-work, and may be compared 
to erectile tissue. Andral, in his Anatomie 
Pathologique, says, “ Lorsqu’on examine avec 
quelque soin un certain nombre ge foies, l’on 
y reconnait l’existence de deux substances: 
l'une rougeatre, od se ramifie surtout le sys- 
teme capillaire de l’organe ; l’autre blanche ou 
jaunatre, qui semble surtout destinée a l’accom- 
plissement de la sécrétion biliare. Dans l'état 
normal ces deux substances sont distinctes.” 
The opinion of Ferrein is opposed by Portal 
and Cruveilhier: the former anatomist, after 
reproving certain modern authors who wished 
to combine the views of Malpighi and Ruysch 
by admitting that the liver was formed both of 
glands and of a prodigious number of vessels, 
contents himself by asserting that Ferrein’s idea 
of the composition of the glands of the liver 
of two substances was gratuitous. To Cruveil- 
hier the distinction of two substances appears ill 
founded, for he observes that the two colours 
when they exist, which is not constantly the 
case, do not belong to two distinct granula- 
tions, but to one and the same, which is yel- 
lowish in the centre where the bile predo- 
minates, and of a brownish red in the circum- 
ference where the blood is situated. Kiernan 
ranks Miiller among the authors who entertain 
an opposite opinion to that of Ferrein, but 
I find upon referring to his work upon the 
glands, that he distinctly admits a kind of 
double substance although he objects to its de- 
signation, medullary and cortical ; hence he ob- 
serves :—“ Diversam substantiam hepatis, ut- 
pote medullarem et corticalem, que per hepar 
totum undique obveniunt, qualem Autenrieth, 
Bichat, Cloquet, Mappes, atque etiam J. Fr. 
Meckel admittunt, equidem neque in historia 
evolutionis amphibiorum et avium, neque in 
hepate adultorum microscopice observato con- 
spexi. Historia evolutionis hanc questionem 
evidentissime illustrat. Systema nimirum duc- 
tuum biliferoram in embryone amphibiorum et 
avium liberis finibus in superficie hepatis pro- 
minulis conspicuum. Sarmentula illa foliatim 
et paniculatim divaricata, colore e gilvo can- 
dido nitent, magnopere ab interstitiis sanguino- 
lentis distincta. Hine sane duplicis substantie 
species exoritur, quoniam circum ductuum bi- 
liferorum a tela conjunctiva expleantur, que 
ex subtilissimis fere constat vasculorum sangui- 
ferorum retibus, in quibus arteriz et venule 
advehentes in revehentes venas transeunt. 
Atque hee sola est utriusque substantie notio. 
Sed in omnibus organis glandulosis fere idem 
obvenit.” In his Physiology he is disposed to 
modify his previous idea of two substances, 
for he says, “ From my researches, however, it 
results that there is but one kind of real he- 
patic substance, formed of agglomerated biliary 
canals; but the ramified divisions of this sub- 
