AND FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 
and lying together with nuclei imbedded in amorphous matter ; similar vesicles and 
more distinct nuclei were seen in the larger ducts up to a diameter of 3-g^th of an 
inch ; some biliary deposits were seen adhering to the exterior of the ducts, which in 
this instance were not dilated. 
About the same time I dissected another Roach whose abdomen contained but little 
roe, and who had been dosed, fifteen hours before death, with two grains of blue pill. 
The spleen contained several groups of yellow corpuscles ; some of the larger were 
surrounded by a homogeneous envelope ; they consisted of various-sized corpuscles 
of about the diameter of blood-globules, but more spherical and more opake, as well 
as more brightly and differently coloured. Coloured corpuscles were sometimes seen 
quite alone, sometimes a very few together ; such were not surrounded by envelopes. 
The liver was of the buff-yellow colour, which indicates a fatty condition; its 
parenchyma was loaded with oil, which was in the state of small drops that became 
detached and floated freely about in the field of view; I satisfied myself of the 
existence of the pellucid vesicles that were so numerous in the former, but they 
were not present in nearly so great numbers ; the parenchymal substance presented 
the appearance of imperfectly formed celloid particles coalescing together in a plexi- 
form manner ; they were surrounded and enveloped in oily matter. In some parts 
small biliary deposits were also observed. 
On dissecting the ducts out, I found some of the trunks extraordinarily dilated into 
great pouches ; the smaller branches, and especially those nearly terminal, were not 
enlarged, or not much ; but they and all the ducts, even the trunks, were stuffed with 
their epithelium, which was at first scarcely discernible, the tubes appearing as if 
filled with a pellucid matter ; but when one was ruptured and the epithelial contents 
escaped, the vesicles, nuclei and amorphous matter came clearly into view. 
On examining closely the large ducts, especially after steeping them in solution of 
bichloride of mercury, it was well seen how their epithelium had encroached on their 
cavity, so as in some parts to have closed the canal completely; this obstruction had 
doubtless occasioned the dilatation of the ducts into pouches, which may also have 
been promoted by the inordinate growth of the epithelium in those parts. The dila- 
tacion of the ducts was not confined to those now described; many of the smaller 
were also affected, so that branches traced in the direction of ramification actually 
enlarged instead of diminishing, and this manifestly depended on their own stuffing, 
and the obstruction towards the outlet. In some ducts the vesicles were very appa- 
rent, crowded togetlier in groups ; in others there was scarce anything to be seen but 
an amorphous and fluid matter. Neither this liver nor that of the preceding yielded 
me any evidence of the presence of sugar. 
A third Roach vvas dosed with 1^ grain of blue pill twice, an interval of seventeen 
hours being allowed to elapse between the doses ; it was killed sixteen hours after the 
last. It contained large masses of ova. The liver was pale, semitranslucent, and con- 
tained a good deal of blood in its vessels ; its parenchyma consisted of nuclei, granulo- 
amorphous matter, and very delicate granular globules ; there was very little oil, and 
