410 THE SOLIDS. 



masses of granular or secreting cells, of a more or less angular 

 form, first resting upon, and then traversed by, branches of 

 the hepatic vein, and enclosed on all sides by a process of the 

 capsule of Glisson. The intervals separating the sides of two 

 lobules from each other are called interlobular fissures, and 

 those which exist where three or more lobules touch each 

 other, interlobular spaces. 



These lobules, for the most part, are perfectly distinct from 

 each other ; nevertheless not unfrequently two of them are 

 more or less united together, as is seen especially on the sur- 

 face of the liver, and in preparations in which the hepatic 

 system of vessels has been injected. (Plate LIV. fig. 6. 

 Plate LY./^. 1.) 



The lobules of the liver are of sufficient size to be easily 

 recognized with the unassisted sight : they vary, however, in 

 dimensions, not merely in the liver of different animals, but like- 

 wise in that of the same : in some animals, also, as in the rabbit 

 and pig, their form, as well as their size, may be clearly defined; 

 and in these they are evidently angular. (Plate \Jf.fig. 1.) 



Such is a brief description of the lobules of the liver : the 

 supposed follicles or acini are nothing more than the intervals 

 between the meshes of the capillary vessels which ramify 

 through the substance of the lobules, and the outlines of which 

 vessels may be readily followed, even without the aid of injec- 

 tion, their course being indicated by a number of dark lines. 



Mr. Kiernan supposed that the acini were really follicles, 

 and that they occupied the spaces which he conceived existed 

 between the meshes of his lobular plexus of biliary ducts. 



The secreting apparatus of the liver consists not only of 

 lobules and their component cells, but also of biliary ducts 

 and gall bladder. 



Biliary Ducts. In his admirable paper on the liver, in- 

 serted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833, Mr. Kier- 

 nan describes the biliary ducts as terminating in the substance 

 of the lobules in a complicated network of minute biliary 

 vessels, which he termed the lobular biliary plexus. Much 

 doubt, however, has recently been cast upon the accuracy of 

 this description, notwithstanding that it has received the 



