190 



ANATOMY OF THE ABDOMEN, ETC. 



The GALL-BLADDER is a pyriform sac, the fund us 

 which extends just beyond the anterior margin of the liver; 

 the neck is directed toward the transverse fissure, and tei 

 minates in the cystic duct. The coats of the gall-bladd< 

 are three in number, viz., peritoneal, cellular, and mucous 

 The peritoneal coat only partially invests it, the posteri< 

 surface being in direct contact with the liver, and connectec 

 to it by the cellular coat. The mucous coat is very fineb 

 reticulated, and stained deep brown by the bile which tinge* 

 all the coats, and gives the bladder a greenish hue ; to ware 

 the neck, the mucous membrane is thrown into prominent 

 folds, which form a sort of valve at the point of its uuioi 

 with the cystic duct. 



The cystic duct, about an inch in length, joins the hepatic 

 duct of the liver two inches distant from the trans ven 

 fissure at which it emerges ; their union forms the ducti 

 choledochus communis, a tube of some three inches 11 

 length, which terminates in the duodenum as already d< 

 scribed. The gall-bladder is merely a reservoir of supei 

 fluous bile, and the duct us choledochus conveys the bih 

 from it as well as that derived directly from the liver. 



The hepatic duct, the hepatic artery, and portal vein, a] 

 surrounded by a loose areolar tissue which accompani< 

 them in their ramifications, and which is called Glissonh 

 capsule. This capsule may be seen, constituting, as it wen 

 the fibrous skeleton of the organ, by tearing the liver, 

 by stripping off the closely adherent peritoneal coat ; 

 surrounds the minute granules or acini, of which this fn 

 ture shows the liver to be made up. 



The hepatic veins are closely adherent by their pariel 

 to the substance of the liver, and cannot, therefore, coi 

 tract, as the loose areolar tissue surrounding the ports 

 veins permits those vessels to do ; in a section of the livei 

 consequently, these may be easily distinguished from eacl 

 other. The portal vein will be found collapsed, and accon 

 panied by an artery and a duct ; while the hepatic vein wil 

 remain open and uncontracted, and is unaccompanied bj 

 any other vessel. 



The liver is supplied with blood from the hepatic brand 

 of the coeliac axis ; the portal vein also conveys its current 

 through the organ, and, collecting the impure blood of the 

 hepatic arteries, terminates in the hepatic vein ; this empth 

 into the vena cava inferior, and so completes the hepati< 

 circulation. The hepatic plexus of nerves, derived f'roi 



