420 THE SOLIDS. 



with innumerable globules of an oleaginous character ; this 

 condition of the cells, of course, impairs, to a very great 

 extent, their secretory powers. (See Plate LVII. Jig. 2,) 



Livers thus laden with oleaginous particles have been 

 termed fatty ; this term, although expressive, is certainly 

 incorrect. Fat is a distinctly organised cellular constituent 

 of the higher forms of animal organisation ; and each true 

 fat globule is a perfect cell, constituted of nucleus and cell 

 wall. The minute globules of oil existing in the cells of 

 the liver and of some other glands, especially in disease, have 

 none of the attributes of cells ; they are merely globular col- 

 lections of an oily fluid, similar to those which exist in the 

 cells of cartilages. 



It is, therefore, evident that the term fatty applied to 

 organs affected in the manner described, is scientifically and 

 fundamentally improper: the appellation of oily would be 

 more correct. 



The truly fatty liver and kidney do, certainly, occasionally 

 present themselves to our notice ; in these, there is an ac- 

 cumulation of true fat cells, not, indeed, within the epithelial 

 particles, but in the interspaces between the lobules and 

 tubules, and also beneath the capsules to a less degree. 



The microscopic characters of the disease called cirrhosis 

 do not appear to have been as yet satisfactorily determined. 



Vascular Apparatus. 



A knowledge of the distribution of the blood-vessels in the 

 lobules of the liver, has enabled the Pathologist to explain 

 satisfactorily various abnormal appearances connected with its 

 vascular apparatus. 



The lobules of the liver of persons or animals that have 

 bled to death, or that have died in an exceedingly anaemic 

 condition resulting from disease, present a pale and exsanguine 

 appearance, arising from the small quantity of blood contained 

 within the blood-vessels. 



A second very common appearance of the lobules of the 

 liver, after death, is that in which they arc red in the centre 

 and pale around the margin. This condition arises from the 



