THE BILE, 



down the centre of the lobule, and goes out at the base, so as 

 to look like a stalk to the lobule. The veins formed from 



these run between the bases of the 

 lobules and anastomose, and are 

 called sublobular, to distinguish them 

 from the hepatic veins within, which 

 are called intralobular and do not 

 anastomose, and from the portal 

 branches without, which run between 

 the other parts of the surface of the 

 lobules, or rather in the capsules of 

 the lobules, and are called interlo- 

 bular and anastomose so freely. 



The lobules are very sparingly supplied with arteries, while the 

 biliferous ducts possess outside the lobules an abundance of them. 

 The minutest biliferous tubes form a reticulated plexus in 

 each lobule, and unite into branches which leave it. These 

 lobular biliary plexuses have much the appearance of cells, 

 and deceived some into the belief of cells which give origin 

 to ducts; and these Malpighi and others erroneously termed 

 acini. 



As the liver so abounds in venous blood, it is very liable to 

 congestion ; and any impediment to the exit of the blood from 

 the hepatic veins, as in diseases of the chest, will cause it to 

 accumulate in the large branches, then in the sublobular, the 

 central hepatic vein of each lobule, the twigs which run to it, 

 and at length in the central part of the lobular portal plexuses. 

 If the congestion is not greater, the central portion of the 



lobules becomes red, and the 

 outer portion retains its usual yel- 

 lowish colour. This appearance 

 made Ferrein, and after him 

 many others, believe that two 

 substances exist in the liver, a 

 red and a white; and it is the 

 usual state after death. If the 



\ *" r ^JL IP 3 *^ HP 8 "^--^ congestion is greater, it extends 



beyond the central portion of 

 the plexuses of the portal veins 

 in the lobules, even to the portal branches in the fissures, and 

 the redness reaches the edge of the lobules for the greater 



