91 



CHAP. V. 



THE BILE. 



" THE bile is secreted by the liver* the most ponderous and 

 the largest of all the viscera, especially in the foetus b , in which its 

 size is inversely as the age. The high importance of this organ is 

 manifested, both by its immense supply of blood-vessels and their 

 extraordinary distribution, as well as by its general existence, for 

 it is not less common to all red-blooded animals than the heart 

 itself. It exists also in invertebral animals with colourless blood, 

 wherever a heart and blood-vessels are present. 



" The substance of the liver is peculiar, easily distinguished at 

 first sight from that of other viscera, of well-known colour and 

 delicate texture d , supplied with numerous nerves 6 , lymphatics 

 (most remarkable on the surface) f , biliferous ducts, and, what 



* " Eustachius, tab. xi. fig. 3, 4. 

 Ruysch, Thes. Anat. ix. tab. iv. 

 Santorini, Tab. Posth. xi." 

 b " J. Bleuland, Icon hepatis foetus octimestris. Traj. ad Rhen. 1789. 4to. 



F. L. D. Ebeling, De Pulmonum cum hepate antagonismo. Gott. 1806. 

 8vo." 



c " See Nic. Mulder's Diss. defunctione hepalis, in Disquisitione zootomica illius 

 viscerisnixa. Lugd. Bat. 1818. 8vo." 



d " In which, however, Autenreith discovers two substances, the one medul- 

 lary and the other cortical. Archiv.fiir die Physiol. t. vii. p. 299. 



Consult also J. M. Mappe's Dissertation, De penitioriliepatis humani structura, 

 Tub. 1817. 8vo." 

 e "Walter, tab. iv." 



f < Maur. v. Reverhorst, De motu bUis circulari ejusque morbis, tab. i. fig. 1,2. 

 Ruysch, Ep. Problemat. v. tab. vi. 



Werner and Feller, Descriptio vasor. lacteor. atque lymphaticor. Fascic. i. 

 tab. iii. et iv. ; although Fr. Aug. Walter finds fault with these plates, Annot. 

 Academic, p. 191. sq. 



Mascagni, tab. xvii. xviii," 



