2 
DR. C. H. JONES ON THE STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT 
mentioned authorities are but corroborators of the original description given by the 
founder of the anatomy of the liver, Mr. Kiernan, so that one can scarce withhold 
assent from the doctrine, that a “lobular biliary plexus” really exists*. 
To advance a contrary opinion in the face of the testimony of so many and so 
eminent authorities, can hardly be judged other than presumptuous ; yet if it appear 
that the ascertaining of truth is my sole object I shall not fear this censure, as well 
knowing that candid minds are glad to confront their own views with all possible 
objections, which serve as tests to detect the alloy of error, and to bring forth into 
clearer show the lustre of the real gold of truth. 
I will mention first two results I have obtained by the method of injection, which 
go to confirm the views of those who maintain the existence of a lobular biliary plexus, 
and are, therefore, opposed to that which I have supported. In reading the descrip- 
tion given by chemists of the mode of obtaining the acids of the bile, the cholic, and 
the choleic, it occurred to me, that the same reagent, the acetate of lead, might be 
employed to produce a precipitate with the bile while still contained in the ducts. 
I tried this first with a Guinea Pig, injecting the ductus com. choled., immediately 
after the animal had been killed, with a saturated solution of the salt above men- 
tioned. This produced a most abundant precipitate in the gall-bladder, and along 
the ducts, even to those of extreme minuteness, rendering them visible to the naked 
eye as ramifying white lines or streaks. In several parts there was seen springing 
from the sides of ducts running in fissures or small portal canals, a minute 
plexus consisting apparently of short straight vessels, uniting at nearly right angles 
with each other. When very thin slices of parts presenting this appearance were 
minutely examined, it was manifest that these vessels exactly occupied the inter- 
cellular spaces ; they had no membranous walls, and seemed to consist solely of injec- 
tion forced in between the cells. Their diameter was very uniform of an inch, 
and the side of the meshes exactly equalled that of the cells, about of an inch. 
They originated directly from the ducts of fissures or canals, and not from any such 
network as Professor Retzius describes. This appearance of a plexus was very 
partial, it occurred only in certain spots, and not, as it appeared to me, in those parts 
where the ducts were best injected ; but was seen as a border of varying width along 
those portal canals where extravasation had manifestly occurred. I repeated this 
experiment with the liver of the Sheep, and obtained a result which appeared very 
striking. The lobules, where the injection had penetrated, presented in their whole 
extent the appearance of a plexus. This plexus was very different in its aspect to the 
partial one obtained by injection of the Guinea Pig’s liver; it consisted not so much 
of distinct vessels, but of spots, patches, and very fine streaks, coalescing irregularly 
together. I am inclined to consider the result in both these cases as produced by 
the action of the acetate of lead upon the albuminous plasma lying between the cells ; 
* Kollikek, however, denies the existence of a biliary plexus, and describes the ducts to terminate nearly 
in the same way that I do. 
