THE LIVER. 539 



edge of the left lobe of the liver without entering the triangular liga- 

 ment.* 2. Anastomosing biliary ducts are also to be met with in the 

 membranous bridge which unites the Spigelian and right lobes behind the 

 inferior vena cava, also in the membranous band which frequently covers 

 the umbilical vein and at the edge of the cystic fossa. 3. In the trans- 

 verse fissure of the liver, according to E. H. Weber, the right and left 

 branches of the ductus Jicpaticus and their smaller twigs give off nume- 

 rous fine ramuscules, which are distributed through the connective tissue 

 of the capsule of Glisson covering the fossa and form a network, which 

 unites the right and left hepatic ducts. Many small branches of 

 these ducts terminate by enlarged ends of 1-25-1-18 of a line, and 

 upon their walls a multitude of rounded elevations are met with, which, 

 like the walls of the smallest bronchice, appear to be formed by flattened 

 cells, which have coalesced with the canals and retain wide communi- 

 cations with their cavities. What Weber thus describes as vasa aber- 

 rantia, were subsequently described by Theile as glands of the biliary 

 ducts. He says, that the elongated glands are not merely curved in 

 various directions, but divide, the resulting branches reuniting with one 

 another, and with the surrounding glands, as may be observed in the 

 glands of the coarser and middle-sized biliary ducts especially, also, 

 in the connective tissue of the transverse fissure, where the glandular 

 networks are connected with both branches of the biliary ducts. In 

 opposition to these views, Weber, in his latest work, adheres to his 

 former interpretation, and shows, against Theile, that mucous glands 

 and their ducts form networks and connect the ducts of other glands 

 nowhere else ; furthermore, that in the new-born infant, although 

 the network of the biliary ducts exist in the transverse fissure, those 

 branches which terminate in enlarged extremities are almost entirely 

 absent. 



The relations of the finest ramifications of hepatic ducts, or of the 

 ductus interlobulares of Kiernan, have not yet been perfectly made out, 

 a subject which gave rise to many remarks in the previous section. I 

 will only add here, that some, as more especially Guillot, suppose, not 

 only that the ductus interlobulares anastomose, but also that their 

 branches are inter-connected in many ways, whilst others, as Theile, 

 describe their communications as scanty. For myself, though I have 

 observed anastomoses of the interlobular ducts, I have as yet met with 

 no communications between their branches, which, though they do not 

 enter the hepatic islets, may be called lobular branches. If they occur, 

 they are certainly few in number, for such branches may be isolated 

 for a considerable distance without any other trunks being seen either 

 to be given off from or to join them. Upon the whole, the interlobular 

 branches are anything but abundantly distributed, and, therefore, the 

 slowness of the biliary secretion is determined, not only by the pecu- 



