PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS 
I. Further Inquiries as to the Structure, Development, and Function of the Liver. 
By C. Handfield Jones, M.D. Cantab., F.R.Si Assistant Physician to 
St. Marys Hospital. 
Received November 19, 1851, — Read January 17, 1852. 
Since I presented to the Royal Society in 1847 the description which I have given 
of the structure of the liver, I have become acquainted with the researches of Professor 
Retzius, and of Dr. Leidy, and have been favoured by M. Natalis Guillot with a 
view of the preparations on which he grounds the opinions I noticed on that occasion. 
Professor Retzius describes the hepatic ducts as forming close networks in the 
sheaths of Glisson’s capsule, perilobular or alveolar networks ; from which are given 
off minute lobular networks interwoven with the portal-hepatic plexuses, and con- 
stituting with them the substance of the lobules. These plexuses are described as 
consisting of anastomosing tubes which are formed of a basement or limitary mem- 
brane, like those of other glands, and in these tubes I presume Professor Retzius 
considers the hepatic cells to be lodged. 
Dr. Leidy’s account is very similar, at least as far as relates to the structure of the 
lobules ; he figures the cells as lying within tubes, which have walls of basement 
membrane, and are two or two and a half times the diameter of the secreting cells. 
In M. Natalis Guillot’s preparations, the injection thrown in by the hepatic duct 
is seen lying in the interspaces of the capillary blood-plexus, and occupying the whole 
extent of the lobules. The view of these anatomists is in great measure accepted 
and confirmed by Dr. Carpenter*: he has satisfied himself that a system of canals 
prolonged from the bile ducts exists in each lobule, but is unable apparently to dis- 
cover the basement membrane, which Retzius and Leidy agree in describing. The 
testimony of Muller, Weber, and Kronenberg is also to the same effect ; they 
describe the hepatic ducts as commencing in very fine networks interlaced with the 
capillary networks between the portal and hepatic veins. And lastly,, all the now 
* Vide Art. Secretion, Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol. 
MDCCCLIII. 
B 
