28 THE LIVER, BY EWALD BERING. ' 



The superficial lymphatics, i.e., those distributed in the 

 capsule, with their capillaries and smaller trunks, form an ex- 

 tremely close plexus, the meshes of which are much closer 

 than those of the arterial plexus in the same situation. The 

 two plexuses are quite independent of each other. The larger 

 trunks accompany the capsular arteries, usually in pairs, which 

 communicate by numerous transverse branches passing over 

 or under the artery. 



The deep lymphatics, i.e., those situated in the sheath of 

 Glisson, are also very numerous, and anastomosing frequently 

 form a plexus, the meshes of which are not quite so close as 

 those of the capsule. In a transverse section, which had 

 divided a portal vein of 0*8 millimeter in diameter, I counted 

 the sections of twenty lymphatics surrounding it. At the 

 surface of the liver the deep and superficial lymphatics anas- 

 tomose, and numerous trunks run up to the capsule with the 

 capsular arteries of the hepatic arteries and small branches of 

 the portal vein. 



It is comparatively easy to demonstrate the microscopic lym- 

 phatics of the liver in Man. They may be shown by merely 

 plunging the injection pipe into the connective tissue, or by 

 injecting the biliary ducts, from which, if the force applied be 

 somewhat too great, the fluid readily escapes, when they 

 become filled with a coloured fluid. These methods, however, 

 which are dependent on chance for their success, often give 

 imperfect and unsatisfactory results. The injection of the 

 lymphatic trunks as practised by Teichmann furnishes much 

 more certain and trustworthy preparations. In this mode a 

 minute opening is made with a needle into as fine a capsular 

 lymphatic as possible, and a small canula is introduced in such a 

 manner that when the injection is driven in it pursues the same 

 direction as the lymph during life. As soon as one or several 

 large trunks have been completely filled they are compressed, 

 and the obstructed fluid now runs backward into the small 

 peripheric vessels which have only incomplete valves. The nu- 

 merous anastomoses of the lymphatics permit in this way the 

 injection of considerable tracts both of the superficial and of 

 the internal lymphatic systems to be effected. I do not tie 

 the slender conically formed canula into the vessel, but hold 



