466 



Drs. Herring and Simpson. 



Relation of the [May 31, 



We have seen no evidence in support of Holmgren's theory of Kupffer's 

 cells sending processes into the liver cells to form " Trophospongien." The 

 injection in the liver cells bears no apparent relation to Kupffer's cells; 

 moreover, the latter are placed at comparatively wide intervals from one 

 another, and it is inconceivable that they should send processes to all the 

 intermediately situated liver cells. 



A perfectly satisfactory conclusion with respect to the lymphatics can 

 only be arrived at by the actual injection of the lymphatics of the liver. We 

 shall revert to the subject again when dealing with the injection of tbe 

 lymphatics. 



In none of the specimens is there any indication of the injection having 

 burst into the bile ducts or capillaries and so entered the liver cells. The 

 characteristic network of the bile capillaries is not seen in any of our injected 

 specimens, and there is no injection inside any of the issuing bile ducts, nor 

 are the epithelial cells lining the ducts injected. After the injection mass 

 has entered the liver cells it is difficult to wash it out by perfusion of 

 the vessels with salt solution. 



We have little to add to the description of the intracellular channels 

 already given by Schafer in the rabbit and cat liver. They form an irregular 

 network in the liver cell. This network may be in direct communication at 

 more than one point with the blood spaces. As a rule, the channels leading 

 into the cell are fine — far too fine to admit red blood corpuscles ; sometimes, 

 however, a comparatively wide opening is seen. A ring-shaped channel is 

 sometimes seen round the nucleus, as described by the Erasers in the frog, 

 and by Nauwerck in the human liver. The injection frequently has the 

 appearance of rounded or irregularly shaped accumulations, as if in vacuoles 

 of the cytoplasm ; a cell may contain many such clumps, and connections 

 between them are not always apparent. 



The injection is often seen in close contact with the nucleus, or both nuclei 

 where two are present. As a rule it does not penetrate into the nuclei, but in 

 the rat we have found it inside the nuclear membrane ; when this is the case, 

 it appears diffused throughout, and not lying in special intranuclear channels. 

 The intracellular channels vary to some extent in the livers of animals of 

 different species, but their general features are the same. The network 

 arrangement is best seen in the rat and the rabbit. They are larger and 

 more moniliform in the cat, still more so in the dog. In the monkey, as 

 already intimated, they are very fine and less readily injected ; and in the 

 few birds we have examined they are also very fine. 



We have not extended our observations to reptiles and fishes. 



Our attention has been drawn by Mr. Kichard Muir, of the Pathological 



