326 THE HUMAN BODY. 



ries run. Covering the surface of the liver is a layer of the 

 peritoneum, beneath which is a dense connective-tissue 

 layer, forming the capsule of Glisson. At the portal fissure 

 offsets from this capsule run in, and line canals, the portal 

 canals, which are tunneled through the organ. These, 

 becoming smaller and smaller as they branch, finally be- 

 come indistinguishable close to the ultimate lobules. From 

 their walls and from the external capsule, connective-tissue 

 partitions radiate in all directions through the liver and 

 support its other parts. In each portal canal lie three ves- 

 sels a branch of the portal vein, a branch of the hepatic 



FIG. 102. A small portion of the liver, injected, and magnified about twenty 

 diameters. The blood-vessels are represented white ; ihe large vessel is a su?;- 

 lobular vein, receiving the intralobular veins, which in turn are derived from 

 the capillaries of the lobules. 



artery, and a branch of the hepatic duct; the division of 

 the portal vein being much the largest of the three. These 

 vessels break up as the portal canals do, and all end ir 

 minute branches around the lobules. The blood (which has- 

 already circulated through the capillaries of the stomach, 

 spleen, intestines and pancreas) carried in by the portal 

 vein is thus conveyed to a fine vascular interlobnlar plexus 

 around the liver lobules, from which it flows on through 

 the capillaries (lobular plexus) of the lobules them- 

 selves. These (Fig. 10J.) unite in the centre of the lobule 



