THE LIVER. 533 



The liver possesses three sets of bloodvessels, two conveying blood 

 to it; viz., the portal vein and the hepatic artery, and a third set, the 

 hepatic veins, which carry the blood from it. The liver in Man, and 

 in the Vertebrata generally, is remarkable for being supplied, partly 

 by venous, and partly by arterial, blood, for the portal vein, contrary 

 to the usual office of a vein, conveys blood into the liver. This portal 

 vein, Fig. 97, p, is formed by the union of the veins of the abdominal 

 organs of digestion and sanguification, excepting the liver itself, viz., 

 by those of the stomach, s, small intestine, i, large intestine, co, except 



Fig. 96. 



Fig. 96. View of the under surface of the liver and stomach, lifted up, to show the duodenum, pancreas, 

 and spleen, and their mutual relations, s, the under or posterior surface of the stomach, which is lifted 

 up. o, the oesophagus, p, the pylorus, d, the horseshoe curve of the duodenum, or first part of the 

 small intestine, i, under side of the right lobe of the liver. I', I', under side of the left lobe, the liver 

 being turned up. a, small piece of the round and suspensory ligament of the liver, g, under side of the 

 gall-bladder, ending below in the cystic duct: this is joined by the hepatic duct, formed by the union of a 

 right and left duct, from the two lobes of the liver. The common duct, resulting from the union of the 

 cystic and hepatic ducts, the ductus communis cboledochus, or common bile duct, passes down, as shown 

 by the dotted lines, behind the duodenum, to end with the pancreatic duct, also shown by dotted lines, by 

 a common orifice, on a papilla, in the duodenum. 6, the pancreas, attached to the curve of the duodenum ; 

 it is partly dissected to show its central duct, with its branches, the end of it being indicated by dotted 

 lines, as above described, m, the spleen, attached to the left end of the stomach and pancreas: its anterior 

 notched border is seen. The drawing indicates the dark color of the spleen and liver, and the white color 

 of the pancreas. 



the lower two-thirds of the rectum, r, of the gall-bladder, pancreas, d, 

 and spleen, m. The veins from these parts unite to form the supe- 

 rior mesenteric and splenic veins, which join to constitute the vena 

 portae. The venous trunk thus formed, p, is of great size, being more 

 than half an inch in diameter. It ascends to the under surface of the 

 liver, and entering the portal fissure, there divides into a right and 

 left branch, for the corresponding lobes of the liver, in the substance 

 of which it ramifies like an artery. The hepatic artery, which also 

 conveys blood to the liver, is a branch of the cceliac axis, a short 

 trunk given off from the abdominal aorta, a; it enters the liver, by 

 the side of the vena portse, at the portal fissure, and, like that vein, 

 divides into a right and left branch for the corresponding lobes. The 

 hepatic veins, which convey the blood from the liver, converge from all 



