16 THE LIVER, BY EWALD BERING. 



Babbit, it was thought that the same account would be also ap- 

 plicable to that of Man, with which, however, subsequent expe- 

 rience has shown that it does not completely correspond. The 

 structure of the human liver accords much more closely with 

 that of the Dog, to the points of difference between which and 

 that of the Rabbit reference has already been made. In the 

 liver of Man by far the greater number of interlobular biliary 

 ducts undoubtedly run between the adjacent planes of the 

 hepatic cells. Still ducts are also found occupying the angles 

 where three, or in very exceptional instances four, cells are in 

 apposition, which is rarely found to occur in the liver of the 

 Rabbit. This feature constitutes the essential difference between 

 the structure of the liver in Man and the Rabbit. 



If very fine sections of the hardened liver of Man be ex- 

 amined, a small fissure-like opening will under favourable 

 circumstances be found in the middle of the contour lines of 

 two adjoining cells. The line divides near its centre into two 

 branches, which immediately coalesce again, and thus enclose the 

 opening. Sometimes the opening presents an oval or circular 

 form. It may frequently be shown by an alteration in the 

 focussing that this opening is the transverse section of a canal; 

 for the contour of the tube may be traced for some distance^ 

 foreshortened as it recedes from the eye of the observer. 

 Again, round or more frequently triangular spaces may be 

 observed at the angle where three adjoining cells meet. It is 

 however impossible to decide in regard to the latter, whether 

 they do not perhaps correspond only to fissures which have 

 formed at the angles of the cells in consequence of the extra- 

 ordinary facility with which these separate from one another. 

 In fig. 122 such biliary passages are seen in transverse section, 

 sketched from the liver of an infant. In very young children 

 they can be demonstrated with great facility. 



In many human livers the lobular biliary ducts can be followed 

 with as much accuracy and as completely as in the best injected 

 livers of animals. It especially occurs that the finely granular 

 yellow colouring matter of the hepatic cells is exclusively de- 

 posited in the immediate vicinity of the biliary ducts, whilst 

 the remainder of the liver is free. Every transverse section of 

 a biliary duct is in such cases surrounded by a yellow area, 



