CHAPTER XIII. 



THE LIVER AND BILIARY APPARATUS. 



BY DR. ABRAHAM MAYER, 



Curator of the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, New York City. 



THE liver is enclosed in a connective-tissue capsule, the 

 peritoneum, which also gives off secondary folds, or duplica- 

 tures, called ligaments, by which the organ is held in proper 

 connection with the adjacent parts. The thickness of the cap- 

 sule is about 0.03 mm., and its free surface is covered with the 

 flattened corpuscles that belong to 'serous membranes gener- 

 ally. This connective-tissue covering is furthermore composed 

 of thin laminae, which contain a large number of elastic fibres. 

 At the transverse fissure, where it is continued into the inte- 

 rior of the organ, the same character is maintained. Here it 

 encircles vessels, ducts, and nerves, forming the so-called 

 Glisson's capsule, which, indeed, with its minute ramifications, 

 traverses the whole interior of the gland. The liver contains, 

 in addition to the glandular substance, blood-vessels, lympha- 

 tics, nerves, and gland-ducts, the whole held together by the 

 framework of connective tissue just mentioned, which in the 

 human species is but imperfectly developed. 



The hepatic lobules. The glandular parenchyma consists 

 of the so-called hepatic lobules, which in the human liver are 

 not completely separated from one another, for the reason 

 just named. In some of the lower animals, however, this sepa- 

 ration is more perfect. In the hog's liver, for example, the 

 septa are so well developed that the lobules are plainly recog- 

 nizable by the naked eye. 



To isolate the human lobules is a matter of some difficulty ; 

 but it can be accomplished by macerating the organ in water 

 from twelve to twenty -four hours. 



These lobules are also known as the hepatic acini, or in- 



