420 THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS IN MAMMALIA. 



and deep notch formed for the passage of the posterior vena cava. ^ This 

 fissure extends directly from behind to before, and consequently slightly 

 crosses the general direction of the liver; near the point where the 

 vena cava leaves the gland to traverse the diaphragm are _ seen the 

 openings of the principal suprahepatic veins. The posterior face is equally 

 smooth and convex, and has also a fissure by which the vena portsB and 

 the hepatic artery and nerves enter, and by which the biliary ducts emerge 

 from the liver. This groove is slightly concave towards the left, and follows 

 the direction of the liver in proceeding obliquely downwards, backwards, 

 and to the left. 



The circumference may be divided into a superior or left, and an inferior 

 or right border, united at both extremities by the ellipsis formed by the 

 liver. The superior border presents, in proceeding from right to left : 1, The 

 insertion of the ligament of the right lobe ; 2, The origin of the fissure for 

 the vena cava ; 3, A notch for the oesophagus ; 4, The insertion of the left 

 ligament. The inferior border is sharp, and offers two deep notches, which 

 divide the liver into three lobes : a superior or right, an inferior or left, 

 and an intermediate one. The right lobe is usually of medium volume, 

 and has above, on its posterior face, an appendix in the shape of a small 

 secondary lobule of a triangular form, whose base responds to the com- 

 mencement of the portal fissures: this is the lobus Spigelii. The left 

 lobe is nearly always the largest. The middle lobe, the smallest of the 

 three, is itself divided by secondary notches into several digitations or 

 lobules. 



Belations. — ^Viewing the organ in position, in order to study its general 

 relations, it is found that the anterior face is applied against the diaphragm — ■ 

 a disposition which augments its convexity in diminishing that of its pos- 

 terior face; and that the latter is in contiguity with the stomach, the 

 duodenum, and the diaphragmatic curvature of the colon. 



The connections proper to each lobe are observed to be as follows : 

 1, The middle lobe responds to the centre of the aponeurotic portion of 

 the diaphragm ; 2, The left lobe touches the left and inferior part of this 

 aponeurosis, and is prolonged to the corresponding point of the fleshy 

 peripheral band of that muscle ; 3, The right lobe is in contact with the 

 right and superior part of the muscle ; its upper border touches the right 

 kidney ; the pancreas rests against its base, on the posterior face. 



Mode of attachment. — The liver is suspended to the sublumbar wall of 

 the abdomen by the large blood-vessels which enter its fissures, and it is 

 also fixed to the posterior face of the diaphragm by four particular bands. 

 One of these is carried from the anterior face of the liver to the phrenic 

 centre, and appears intended to oppose total displacement of the organ ; the 

 other three belong to each particular lobe. 



A. The ligament of the anterior face of the liver (or coronary ligament) 

 comprises two series of very short aponeurotic fibres, which, arising from 

 the two borders of the vena cava fissure, go to be fixed to the posterior face 

 of the phrenic centre. The peritoneum is folded over it on each side in 

 passing from the diaphragm to the liver. The adherence of these fibres to 

 the walls of the vena cava is extremely close ; and the vena cava itself, 

 being thus in a manner united to the tissue of the liver, it happens that 

 the union of the anterior face of the viscus with the phrenic centre could 

 not be more solidly established. 



B. The ligament of the left lobe is a wide peritoneal fold, between the 

 two layers of which are some fasciculi of white fibrous tissue. It is detached 



