THE LIVER. 531 



surrounded on all sides by the hepatic lobules and receives a single vein 

 from each, so that they actually appear to be attached to it by short 

 pedicles. Now since this takes place in exactly the same manner from 

 the veins of moderate size up to the intralobular veins, the hepatic 

 veins and lobules may, not without reason, be compared to a tree whose 

 branches are so numerous and so closely beset with polygonal leaves 

 that the foliation, so to speak, constitutes one mass. Imagine now, 

 that another ramified system, composed of vessels, is introduced into 

 the expanded head of this tree, in such a manner that the larger vessels 

 lie in the clefts between its principal masses, the smaller and smallest 

 in those between the subordinate masses, ultimately penetrating into 

 the lobules themselves, so that every lobule is connected with many of 

 the finest twigs, receiving a coat from the connective tissue which ac- 

 companies them, and we shall have as distinct an idea as possible of the 

 relations of the vena portce. The hepatic duct and artery merely 

 accompany the vena portce, and, therefore, require no special notice. 



In form, the lobes of the Pig's liver are angular, usually presenting 

 irregular four, five and six-sided figures in longitudinal and transverse 

 sections. 



In the human liver, but very little connective tissue accompanies the 

 vena portce between the hepatic islets, and the latter can neither be said 

 to possess coats nor to be in any complete manner enclosed by the vessels. 

 In cirrhosis of the liver, on the other hand, an enormous increase takes 

 place in the amount of connective tissue contained in the parenchyma of 

 the liver, and the individual secreting segments may become prominent 

 or even form isolated lobules. The reddish-brown hepatic substance is 

 softer, because more macerated, and sinks in more than the rest, upon 

 the surface and in sections ; it may also be more easily scraped away and 

 sometimes readily falls out in fine segments. The cortical layer, which 

 forms a reticulation around the reddish-brown spots, presents narrower 

 places, fissurce interlobulares, Kiernan, and wider, spatia interlobularia, 

 in which not uncommonly a bloody point may be seen, arising from a 

 portal vessel, but not so regularly as in the brown spots, where it arises 

 from the vena intralobularis and often appears stellate. 



By the more complete filling up of the capillary network, it may hap- 

 pen, and, according to Theile, this is in fact the usual case in the majority 

 of human livers, that the fissurce interlobulares disappear, the brown 

 substance representing a network, and the yellow, occurring in isolated 

 spots. I find, as I have stated above, that perfectly fresh livers are, for 

 the most part, uniformly colored throughout. Kiernan describes, in 

 children, even a reversal of the coloring, which he considers to be 

 dependent upon congestion, more particularly of the vena portce, the 

 external portions of the hepatic lobes being thus more injected. Neither 

 Theile nor I have hitherto noticed this form. 



