1906.] Liver Cells to the Blood-vessels and Lymphatics. 



465 



form saline does not prevent the subsequent injection of the cells ; and in one 

 cat, perfusion of 300 c.c. of a 2-per-eent. solution of cyanide of potassium was 

 followed by a successful result, although in this experiment the liver cells 

 were considerably altered and the nuclei shrunken. 



The appearances are against simple filtration from the blood-vessels into 

 the cells. The colour of the carmine mass is of the same tint within the cells 

 as in the blood spaces, and in many places a direct connection between the 

 two can be made out. There is, besides, no diffusion of carmine and no 

 staining of nuclei by it. 



The question of the relation of the lymphatics to the injection is an 

 important one. The injection certainly passes readily into the lymphatics 

 and appears in the large trunks of the portal spaces. In these situations the 

 injection mass contained in the large trunks is of a lighter colour and is 

 obviously diluted with lymph, but the injection mass within the lobules 

 shows no such appearance of dilution, nor, indeed, are any spaces visible 

 but the blood spaces occupied by the injection. The mass in these is usually 

 in close contact with the liver cells, and where spaces exist between the two 

 they are clearly the result of shrinkage of the gelatine. If perivascular 

 lymphatics exist in the lobules they must be filled with the injection mass, 

 if it is through them that the liver cells become injected. We can make out 

 no appearances suggestive of such a path for the injection. The injection is 

 inside the blood-vessels and inside the liver cells ; nowhere else within the lobule. 



The relation of Kupffer's cells to the injection is an interesting one and will 

 be dealt with more fully later. In a complete injection these cells are more 

 or less hidden by the carmine gelatine, but in an imperfect injection, where 

 comparatively little colouring matter is mixed with the blood, it is seen that 

 Kupffer's cells are frequently coloured as though they had picked up the 

 carmine from the vessel contents. (The presence of colouring matter on either 

 side of the nucleus of a Kupffer's cell gives in such cases an appearance which 

 might be mistaken for carmine gelatine on either side of the vessel wall.) 

 When the blood-vessels are washed out after an injection of carmine 

 gelatine, the injection mass often adheres to the vessel wall closely applied 

 to the liver cells, and is especially noticeable at the Kupffer's cells. The 

 cytoplasm of these cells is usually injected, but not the nucleus. The 

 injection within their cytoplasm seems to be uniform and not confined to 

 channels as within the liver cells, but the cytoplasm of Kupffer's cells is so 

 small in amount that it is difficult to determine what has really happened, 

 whether injection, infiltration, or absorption. The latter is possible and 

 seems probable where the injection mass is small in amount and mixed with 

 the blood. 



