2 THE LIVER, BY EWALD HERING. 



lobular veins (sen centrales) because each is imbedded in the 

 interior of one of the hepatic lobules (lobulus seu acinus seu 

 insula hepatis). On each intralobular vein a small portion of 

 the liver is seated like a raspberry on its stalk, and in corre- 

 spondence with the great number of the intralobular veins, these 

 follicles are so closely compressed that they are everywhere in 

 immediate contact with each other, and are flattened in accord- 

 ance with their mutual pressure. In the liver of certain 

 animals, as for example in the Pig, the lobules can be easily 

 recognized, and may even be isolated by maceration. The sur- 

 face of the organ in the Pig presents to the naked eye small 

 four, five, or six-sided areas, with a mean diameter of 1*6 milli- 

 meter. The lobules in this instance are completely separated 

 from one another by septa of connective tissue, which, in the 

 most superficial layer of the liver, are directed perpendicularly 

 to the surface, and confer upon the latter the above-mentioned 

 polygonal markings. In the liver of Man these connective- 

 tissue septa are only very imperfectly developed, and conse- 

 quently the mass of each hepatic lobule is, in him, throughout 

 a great part of its periphery, directly continuous with the 

 adjoining lobuli. 



The portal vein, which conducts to the liver the blood col- 

 lected from the abdominal viscera, gives off branches that are 

 accompanied by those of the hepatic duct, artery, and nerves. 

 All these structures are bound together and invested by 

 fibrillar connective tissue, which, under the name of Glisson's 

 Sheath (Capsula Glissonii), encloses also the lymphatics 

 destined for the interior of the liver. In the liver of the Pig 

 the angles of the elongated irregularly polyhedric lobuli are 

 rounded off, so that where three or four lobuli impinge upon one 

 another an interlobular canal (canalis interlobularis) is left 

 between them, into which fine branches of the above-named 

 vessels penetrate, whilst their investing connective tissue be- 

 comes directly continuous with the septa of the lobules. The 

 course of the smaller branches of the portal vein is thus mainly 

 determined by the form of the lobuli, since they run in the in- 

 terangular spaces of the latter, i.e. in the interlobular spaces, 

 and send their ultimate branches into the septa of the lobules. 

 Hence, because the smaller branches of the portal vein only 



