530 Drs. P. T. Herring and ' S. Simpson. [May 1, 



cells. It is remarkable that the protoplasm of the liver cell, containing as it 

 does the plasmatic channels and the origin of the bile capillaries, should be 

 able to sustain so great a difference of pressure without bile passing from 

 the bile capillaries into the blood sinusoids. That the liver cells should be 

 capable of injection in much the same manner both from the blood vessels 

 and from the bile ducts is a fact of extreme importance. The pressure 

 necessary in either case is a comparatively small one. In none of our 

 experiments on the injection of intracellular canals in the liver from the blood 

 vessels did we find any escape of injection material from the cells into the 

 bile passages. On the other hand, injection of the bile ducts in the dead 

 animal appears to be invariably attended with filling of a few of the cells 

 at the periphery of the lobule and escape into the blood vessels. 



The intracellular plasmatic channels are in direct communication with the 

 blood vessels, but when injected from the latter it is often difficult to make 

 out in every cell the mode of entrance of the injection. It is probable that 

 the liver cell exerts a controlling influence on the amount of plasma which 

 passes in from the blood. We found it difficult to wash the injection mass 

 out of the channels by a subsequent perfusion through the blood vessels of 

 normal saline. 



We suggested in our previous paper that the intracellular plasmatic 

 channels of the liver act as an intermediate system, linking the blood vessels 

 in the lobules to the lymphatics outside, and that the lymph passes from 

 cell to cell on its way to the periphery of the lobule. The absorption of 

 bile by the lymphatics in obstructive jaundice seems to us to favour this 

 view. The mechanism of bile absorption appears to be in the liver cell. 

 When the passage of bile is obstructed, the pressure in the bile ducts and 

 capillaries rapidly rises, secretion continues, but is diverted in the peri- 

 pheral cells of the lobules into the lymph stream; when obstruction is 

 removed, the bile again follows its normal course. The amount of pressure 

 which the liver cell has to sustain, and which is exerted on it when the bile 

 duct is occluded, is comparatively low, and does not materially affect its 

 vitality. An example of this is furnished by Dog D, already instanced, in 

 which a maximum bile pressure of 285 mm. bile was recorded in the first 

 experiment. The obstruction was then removed, and a record of the rate of 

 bile flow taken. The rate of secretion half an hour later was more rapid than 

 it had been prior to the experiment. A second record of bile pressure taken 

 an hour after the first gave a maximum pressure of 305 mm. bile. That sub- 

 sequent estimations of bile pressure are not as a rule as high as the first may 

 quite well be explained by a diminution of activity of the liver cell, due to 

 the length of time the animal is under the anaesthetic. 



