455 



On the Relation of the Liver Cells to the Blood-vessels and 



Lymphatics. 



By Percy T. Herring, M.D., and Sutherland Simpson, M.D., D.Sc. 



(Communicated by Professor E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. Received May 31, — Read 



June 14, 1906.) 



(From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.) 

 [Plates 22 and 23.] 



The description by Schafer (55) of a network of fine channels in the cells of 

 the liver of the rabbit and cat which can be filled with injection material 

 from the blood-vessels, and the confirmation of his observations in the livers 

 of other animals as the result of our own experiments (26), have opened up 

 several important questions concerning the minute anatomical structure of the 

 liver. The presence of intracellular channels in the liver cells communicating 

 with the blood-vessels is difficult to reconcile with the generally accepted 

 views on the relations of the blood-vessels and lymphatics to the liver cells. 

 Of late years several observers (Browicz (8), Schafer (55)), have cast doubt on 

 the presence of perivascular lymphatics in the liver lobules, and have 

 suggested a direct supply of blood plasma from the vessels to the interior of 

 the liver cells without interposition of lymph spaces. That the walls of the 

 capillary blood-vessels of the liver possess a peculiar form of endothelial 

 lining has been long recognised (Kupffer (37), Ranvier (50), and others). 

 More recently Minot(45), from a study of the development of the livei 

 vessels, has concluded that they are not true capillaries which have grown 

 into the organ, but " sinusoids " which have been formed by a growth of the 

 liver blastema into a large blood sinus, which, although having the appearance 

 of capillaries, are actually spaces between the columns of liver cells lined by 

 cells of an embryonic character. 



To resolve the question of the relationship of the blood and lymph to the 

 liver cells, we have in many kinds of animals injected the blood-vessels with 

 carmine gelatine, and have, in dogs' and cats, injected the large lymphatics of 

 the liver with the same material. We have also injected the bile ducts in a 

 number of animals and have further examined sections of liver stained by 

 special methods. The results of our observations are recorded in this paper. 



We are indebted to Professor Schafer for help and advice in our work, and 

 to Mr. Richard Muir for the care with which he has executed the 

 accompanying drawings. The expenses of the research have been defrayed 

 VOL. lxxviii. — B. 2 M 



