THE BILIARY CANALS OF THE LOBULES. 13 



As long as the cells of a hardened liver are in situ, they 

 appear to be separated by a fine contour line, and at this 

 point a fissure may often be discerned indicating their com- 

 mencing separation. They are sometimes firmly adherent to 

 the capillary wall, but a space usually intervenes between the 

 two. From these appearances no conclusion can be drawn as 

 to whether the hepatic cells possess a membrane or condensed 

 layer investing the whole or only a part of their external 

 surface, and whether two cells in contact are separated by 

 a simple intervening septum, or by a cementing substance, 

 especially since considerable differences exist in the livers of 

 various animals. Thus, for example, the cells of the hardened 

 liver of the Rabbit are isolated with much difficulty, and only 

 occasionally, either from each other, or from the capillaries, 

 whilst they do not exhibit the clefts and fissures which occur 

 so readily in the liver of Man and many other animals. 



Besides the forms described above, others of a very different 

 nature are presented by the hepatic cells; some, for example, 

 presenting the form of discs attached to the capillaries; others 

 being more or less fusiform, with elongated nuclei, etc., which as 

 representing anomalous conditions will not here be further 

 described. The hepatic cells in their living condition, being 

 composed of a tenacious semi-fluid material, may be made 

 artificially to assume the most varied forms, which are retained 

 after they have stiffened in death, or have been subjected to a 

 hardening process. 



THE BILIARY CANALS OF THE HEPATIC LOBULES. The in- 

 tralobular biliary canals, or those which run within the hepatic 

 lobules, and which are sometimes termed biliary capillaries, 

 have not hitherto been described as they appear in the liver 

 of Man, and I am compelled therefore to confine myself to the 

 results of my own observations. The value of these chiefly 

 depends on their coinciding with what is already known re- 

 specting the intralobular biliary canals of Mammals. 



In Mammals the biliary ducts when injected (figs. 120 and 

 121) form a close plexus of minute and usually cylindrical 

 canals, having a diameter of O001 to 0'002 of a millimeter, which 

 runs between the hepatic cells, and forms polygonal meshes of 



