14 THE LIVER, BY EWALD BERING. 



the same diameter as these. In certain animals, as for example 

 the Rabbit, these canals run exclusively, and in others, as the 

 Dog, in by far the greatest number, not along the angles, but 

 between the planes of contact of two adjacent cells, dividing 

 their surfaces sometimes into two equal halves, and at others 

 unequally. Where, however, they occupy the angular space 

 formed by the several adjacent cells, such space does not con- 

 tain a blood capillary in any part of its length, nor is it in 



Fig. 120. 



Fig. 121. 



Figs. 120 and 121. Sections of an injected liver from the Rabbit- 

 The slender biliary ducts arranged in the form of a plexus are divided 

 longitudinally, the much wider blood capillaries transversely. The 

 biliary ducts are also seen in section as dark points in the line repre- 

 senting the plane of contact (septum) between two adjoining hepatic 

 cells. In the interior of each of the hepatic cells are one or two nuclei. 



relation with a capillary at its extremities. No biliary duct 

 therefore can be found which is not separated from a capillary 

 by intervening cell substance. On the other hand, with rare 

 exceptions the few angular spaces that are not occupied by a 

 bloodvessel contain a billiary duct, and every plane surface 

 between two adjoining cells is either traversed near its middle 

 by a biliary duct, or is at least in contact with a duct, by one 



