492 



Drs. Herring and Simpson. Relation of the [May 31, 



and lymphatics we should expect that any agencies which increase the 

 activity of the liver cell would also increase the amount of lymph flowing 

 from the liver.* 



Summary. 



1. The liver cells are permeated by fine anastomosing channels which can 

 be filled with injection mass from the blood-vessels. These channels 

 undoubtedly receive plasma from the blood. In the dog, red blood corpuscles 

 are occasionally seen within the liver cells, and crystals which closely 

 resemble haemoglobin are frequently found inside the cell nuclei. There 

 must, therefore, be an intimate connection between the blood in the intra- 

 lobular blood-vessels and the liver cells. 



2. The lymphatics of the liver (dog, cat) are confined to the visible 

 connective tissue of Glisson's capsule and the adventitia of the hepatic veins. 

 The lymphatic vessels accompany the hepatic artery and its branches, forming 

 networks around these vessels as well as around the branches of the portal 

 vein and bile ducts. There are no lymphatics within the lobules. The 

 perivascular lymphatics described by MacGillavry do not exist. Both portal 

 and hepatic lymphatics leave the organ at or near the portal fissure. 



3. The endothelium which lines the intralobular blood spaces (sinusoids in 

 the sense of Minot) is incomplete and allows the passage through it both of 

 fluid and of fine solid particles into the liver cells. The endothelial cells are 

 of two kinds, large and small. The large cells (Kupffer s cells) are phagocytic, 

 and often project into the blood spaces. 



4. The concentrated character of the liver lymph is explained by the 

 incomplete nature of the endothelium lining the intralobular blood-vessels, 

 thus permitting the plasma to pass directly into the liver cells. It is possible 

 that the cells of the lobule form a syncytium, and the lymph is thus able to 

 pass from cell to cell. It is probably passed at the periphery of the lobules 

 into the interstices of the connective tissue which lies between the lobules ; 

 here it enters the lymphatics. All conditions which would tend to promote 

 the activity of the liver cells should, by virtue of these arrangements, also tend 

 to promote the flow of lymph. 



* Cf. Asher, " Untersucliungen liber die Eigenschaften und die Entstehung der 

 Lynrphe ;" Asher and Barbera, 'Zeitschr. f. Biol.,' vol. 36, p. 154, 1898 ; Asher, ' Zeitschr. 

 f. Biol.,' vol. 37, p. 261, 1898 ; Asher and Gies, ' Zeitschr. f. Biol.,' vol, 40, p. 180, 1900 ; 

 Asher and Busch., 'Zeitschr. f. Biol.,' vol. 40, p. 333, 1900; Asher, 'Zeitschr. f. Biol.,' 

 vol. 45, p. 121, 1904. 



