4 THE LIVER, BY EWALD HERING. 



ultimate branches of which the intralobular veins the 

 hepatic lobuli are seated in the form of elongated berries, the 

 portal vein may be regarded as a trunk penetrating the liver 

 from the opposite side, and projecting its branches between the 

 closely compressed lobuli as a tree forces its roots into the 

 clefts and fissures of a rocky soil. 



The surface of the liver in a living animal presents a uniform 

 brownish-red colour, and does not give any indications of its 

 lobular structure. In the dead animal it is also frequently 

 quite uniform in colour in particular parts, but usually presents a 

 more or less distinctly marbled appearance, as though it were 

 composed of two different substances, one of a darker tint and 

 inclined to red, the other brighter and of a yellowish hue. 

 This is especially observable on the under surface of the liver, 

 where the capsule is thinner, and also on the surface of sec* 

 tions made through the substance of the organ. The darker 

 material sometimes forms roundish spots, whilst the brighter 

 appears as a kind of network, in the meshes of which the dark 

 spots are contained. In other instances, again, the darker 

 substance forms the network, and includes brighter spots or 

 areas. Sometimes, again, the darkly coloured portions form sinu- 

 ous lines like the convolutions of the brain, the narrow inter- 

 stices of which are occupied by the more brightly coloured 

 substance. The latter corresponds to the peripheric, the former 

 to the central portions of the lobules, and the difference in tint 

 depends partly upon the circumstance that the peripheric 

 portions of the lobules contain less blood than the central 

 (Kiernan), and partly upon the biliary pigment being chiefly 

 accumulated in the central, and the fatty substances in the 

 peripheric portions of the lobules (Theile). The interlobular 

 veins can frequently be recognized on the surface of the liver, 

 even with the naked eye, as small branched or unbranched 

 strise or points, but the intralobular veins in the centre of the 

 dark areas are less commonly visible. In some instances the 

 position of each lobule is rendered evident by a slight elevation, 

 which can be either made more conspicuous or caused to dis- 

 appear by light pressure or traction. 



The earlier views maintaining the existence of a completely lobular 



