PROFESSOR SIMONDS’S LECTURE. 
509 
position of the epigastric region, between the two hypochondriacs; 
the umbilical, between the lumbars ; and the hypogastric between 
the iliacs. It was in the right hypochondriac region that the liver 
was principally situated, but not entirely, as in some animals, such 
as the horse, sheep, and ox a portion of it extended into the epi- 
gastric, and even into the left hypochondriac. The liver being a 
gland differing with regard to its development, was also divided 
into lobes, more or less numerous in different animals. In the ox 
and sheep we observe the middle, the right, and the left lobes ; in 
the pig a larger number; and in the dog a larger still. But not 
only did the liver thus differ in size and form, it varied in other 
important particulars: in some animals they met with an appendage 
called the gall-bladder, which was found in the ox, the sheep, the 
dog, and the pig, but was wanting in the horse. Nor must they 
imagine that, seeing the gall-bladder was generally present in do- 
mesticated animals, it existed in all of the same class. It was 
found in some of the deer tribe, but not in others ; and it was said 
by Professor Owen, that it formed the mark of distinction between 
the hollow and the solid horned ruminantia, existing in the hollow 
horned and not in the solid. That it was a receptacle for the se- 
cretion coming from the liver could not be denied, but, at the same 
time, it also secreted a fluid that mingled with the bile. These 
anatomical peculiarities would throw some light on the diseases 
of the gland, and would be useful in understanding the functions 
which the liver performed : as he had before observed, the gall- 
bladder was not found in the pachydermata, with the exception of 
the pig and his congeners : in the horse, and likewise in the ele- 
phant and rhinoceros, it was wanting. [The lecturer then described 
the structural anatomy of the liver, referring to various diagrams 
suspended against the walls : he pointed out the position of the 
vena portse and the bloodvessels with which it was connected ; the 
mesenteric veins coming from the intestines, the splenic from the 
spleen, the pancreatic from the pancreas, and the gastric from the 
stomach.] All these vessels were united to form the large portal 
vein which entered the liver. The blood carried by the veins of 
the intestinal canal was impregnated with the non-nitrogenized 
materials which the animals had taken in their food, and their ab- 
sorption was taking place, not for the purpose of affording nutri- 
ment, but to support the heat of the body ; while those not con- 
sumed for this purpose accumulated in various tissues in the form 
of fat. From the fact of the liver receiving this impure blood, it 
might also be gathered that it was not only what anatomists de- 
signated a secreting organ, but likewise an excreting one : it got 
rid of something out of the blood, which if continued in it would 
be prejudicial to health ; consequently it was evident that the liver 
