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softening solution they showed, as a rule, a marked tendency to fall into minute frag- 
ments, and the slightest movement of the vessel caused the tissue to break up into a 
flocculent precipitate. Much of the hepatic substance had disappeared, and even when 
treated with the greatest care, the fragments formed small laminae which readily separated 
from one another. After many failures large pieces of tissue were prepared for microsco- 
pical examination, by carefully adding absolute alcohol drop by drop to the softened 
fragments. The bileducts had completely or almost completely disappeared. In two 
livers not a trace of such a channel remained. In a third a few bileducts were observed, 
these probably owing their escape from destruction to the dense connective tissue 
(cirrhosis I surrounding them. The typical arrangement of the lobule, with its cells 
radiating from the hepatic vein, was still evident (Plate VIII. Fig. 2 and 3), but in almost 
every section cells were missing here and there, or had been converted into a thin reti- 
culum without any definite structure (Plate VIII. Fig. 1). This is evidently a postmortem 
change due possibly to putrefaction, or more probably to autolysis. 
The state of preservation of the hepatic cells varies a good deal, sometimes even 
in sections of the same organ. In some, the cells are converted into slender almost homo- 
geneous strands, and so thin as to simulate fibrous tissue. In other parts of the same 
organ, the cells are much larger, their lateral borders run into one another, leaving but 
little space between them. As a rule, owing to the long desiccation that they have 
undergone, they form a network with almost homogeneous branches. 
Examination of the plate (Plate VIII. Fig. 3) shows that in many places several 
layers of cells have been depicted, the superficial appearing more darkly stained than 
the deeper ones. 
The drying process has evidently reduced the size of the individual cells so much 
that, however thin the section (and this one was only one micro-millimeter thick), several 
layers of cells are exhibited. Nevertheless in each preparation, hoAvever imperfect the 
state of the organ, there is seldom any difficulty in recognising the typical arrangement 
of the liver cells. 
Occasionally the hepatic cells are in a much better state of preservation. In one 
liver of the XXIst dynasty, not only can individual hepatic cells be recognised but the 
nucleus of each is perfectly plain (Plate VIII. Fig. 3). The bloodvessels of this organ 
are in a very fair state of preservation. 
As a rule the state of the vascular system is very unsatisfactory, and the blood- 
vessels are often represented by empty spaces only (Plate VIII. Fig. 2 and 3); here and 
there, torn and very imperfect fragments of the walls of the artery are found. The 
portal system throughout appears to have suffered most, not a trace of it remaining 
in many sections. The hepatic veins are sometimes in a better state, though in the 
majority of lobules, the walls of the veins have either disappeared altogether, or are 
represented by a few shreds only. In no other organ is the vascular system in such an 
advanced state of disintegration. 
