THE LIVER. 535 



duct proceeding from the gall-bladder, Fig. 96, g, named the cystic 

 duct, and so forms the ductus communis choledoehus, or common bile 

 duct. This latter duct is about three inches long, and two or three 

 lines wide; passing down behind the duodenum, 5, it reaches the left 

 or concave border of the intestine, where it comes in contact with the 

 pancreas, and soon after, with the duct of that gland, or pancreatic 

 duct, Fig. 88, a, Fig. 96. The two ducts then pass together, and 

 obliquely, through the walls of the duodenum, for about three-quarters 

 of an inch, and finally, opposite the junction of the middle and lower 

 parts of the duodenum, about three inches below the pylorus, open 

 upon a slight eminence of the mucous membrane, by a common and 

 slightly constricted orifice, provided with a kind of sphincter. Some- 

 times, however, the biliary and pancreatic ducts open separately into 

 the duodenum. 



The lymphatics of the liver are either superficial or deep; the for- 

 mer ramify upon its surface, the latter emerge at the portal fissure. 

 The nerves are comparatively few in number; they are derived chiefly 

 from the sympathetic system, and, as usual with those nerves, are 

 supported on the arteries. The pneumogastric nerves, especially the 

 left, also supply a few branches to the liver. The right phrenic nerves 

 send filaments to the peritoneal coat. Beneath the partial peritoneal 

 investment, the liver possesses a proper areolar coat, which covers its 

 whole surface, and, at the portal fissure, passes into the interior of the 

 organ, and becomes continuous with a loose areolar tissue, named the 

 capsule of G-lisson, to be presently described. 



The proper substance of the liver, is firm, and presents, on section, a 

 reddish-brown mottled aspect. It is composed of a multitude of com- 

 pressed polyhedral masses, about the size of a pin's head, measuring 

 from 2*4 th to y^th of an inch in diameter, named the hepatic globules ; 

 they cause the granular appearance of the torn surface of the liver. 

 These little portions of gland-substance, are held together by the 

 ultimate ramifications of the bloodvessels and ducts, and also by a fine 

 areolar tissue, occupying the interlobular spaces, and named the inter- 

 lobular tissue, which is itself connected, on the surface of the gland, 

 with the areolar coat. The hepatic lobules are closely arranged around 

 certain canals, which commence at the portal fissure, branch out in all 

 directions through the gland, becoming smaller and smaller as they 

 proceed, and ultimately lose themselves in the interlobular spaces. 

 These are the portal canals, which contain not only the branches of the 

 portal vein, but also those of the hepatic artery, and hepatic ducts, the 

 deep lymphatics, and the nerves. Surrounding and supporting those 

 vessels, ducts, and nerves, is found the loose areolar tissue, named 

 Glisson's capsule, which, outside and beyond the portal canal, is con- 

 tinuous with the interlobular tissue. A transverse section through a 

 portal canal, shows a roundish space in the gland-substance, occupied 

 chiefly by a section of a portal vein, with which, however, are associ- 

 ated one or two branches of the hepatic artery, and hepatic duct, the 

 whole being embedded in the capsule of Glisson ; the arteries are 

 smaller than the duct ; the canal also contains lymphatics, -invisible, 

 unless injected, and nerves supported upon the arteries ; in the small- 



