540 THE TISSUES. 



Fatty matter . . . 



Albumen 



Alkaline salts 



Earthy salts .... ' 



Extractive matter . . . 



Vessels, &c., insoluble in water '< 



Function of the Liver. 1. The liver secretes the bile, whose pro- 

 perties have already been specified (p. 212). And all analogy war- 

 rants the idea that it is secreted by the true hepatic cells lying in 

 the meshes of the portal-hepatic plexus, and which are contained in 

 the tubes which have been described. It is also very certain that 

 the bile is formed in the cells and not merely eliminated from the 

 blood (p. 211). 2. But the liver also forms sugar, as has already 

 been shown (p. 71); and probably its parenchymal cells are the agents 

 employed in its formation. 3. Again, the liver produces a change 

 in the alimentary substances (albumen, &c.), while traversing it 

 from the vena portas, after being first absorbed into the vessels of 

 the intestinal villi. It even forms fat as well as sugar, when neither 

 are contained in the food ; and thus becomes a sort of equilibrator of 

 the function of hcematosis, or the development of blood. 



Of its pathological conditions, fatty degeneration has already been 

 described at some length (p. 311, 5). 



In cirrhosis of the liver, there is an enormous increase of the areolar 

 tissue inclosing the vascular trunks (except the hepatic vein) and 

 the hepatic ducts; and the individual islets may become prominent, 

 or even form isolated lobules. Since also this increase of the 

 connective tissue is- consequent upon the organization of plasma 

 exuded by an inflammation of Glisson's capsule, and the new for- 

 mation subsequently contracts the liver is thus rendered more 

 solid and smaller; the true hepatic substance also becoming atro- 

 phied, or in part disappearing. 



In jaundice, the pigment-granules are abnormally increased in the 

 hepatic cells ; they sometimes completely filling the latter. 



For its other pathological conditions, reference must be had to the 

 treatises on pathological anatomy. 

 



2. The Pancreas. 



The pancreas is a compound racemose gland, so similar in its 

 minute structure to the salivary glands, that only its peculiarities 

 will be here described. The terminal cseca of the pancreatic duct 

 are g ^ to 3^ of an inch in diameter, and usually rounded, and 

 are lined by a simple scaly epithelium whose cells are frequently 



