AND FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 
15 
bile in the cells. In some instances of healthy livers in animals, as in the Mole {Talpa 
eitropcea), the Hare {Lepiis timidus), and the Squirrel {Sciurus), and also in others, I 
have noted the presence of biliary matter in the cells ; nor do I doubt in the least the 
possibility of its being frequently so found, only it seems to me that evidence is want- 
ing to show that this condition is constant and essential. I have often tried the 
effect of adding nitric acid to the cells, but I do not think that I have thereby 
obtained any more decisive evidence regarding the point in question ; this reagent 
makes the cells more opake, contracts them, renders their envelopes more marked, 
and their contents more granular, but does not impart a more positive biliary tint. I 
think as soon as a real yellow tint exists the eye will judge of it much more satisfac- 
torily when the cells are in their natural state, than when they are shrunk and 
entangled amid granular films of coagulated plasma. 
Not wishing to rely solely on my own observations, I wrote to three of the most 
eminent physiologists in London, requesting they would inform me of their views on 
the matter; they kindly replied to my inquiries, and permit me to subjoin their 
replies. Mr. Bowman’s communication is as follows; — My notion of the matter 
you refer to is shortly this, that the bile does exist in those hepatic cells that lie 
nearest to the surface of the lobules, i. e. to the portal surface where the ducts com- 
mence ; not that those cells contain nothing but bile, but that bile comes out of 
them, either by their rupture and deliquescence, or while they lie in situ, undergoing- 
only such slow degeneration as is common to the elements of most or all tissues. 
That the cells lie in series extending from the hepatic venous to the portal venous 
surface, and that there is an onward march of the cells from the former to the latter ; 
those near the former being immature, and those near the latter mature; that the 
bile is gradually elaborated by the agency of all, but probably chiefly by those 
situated nearest the portal surface. The yellow and brown hepatic substances are 
the immature and mature hepatic cells respectively. The congestions of Kiernan 
seem to me to depend on the bulk of these cells respectively, allowing the capillaries 
which flow through them to hold more or less blood after death. Many of the morbid 
appearances of the liver are, in my opinion, dependent on diseased conditions of one 
end of the series of the hepatic cells (the hepatic venous or the portal), to the exclu- 
sion of, or in a different way or degree than that other.” This view of Mr. Bowman’s 
is nearly the same as that I proposed in my first paper on the Secretory Apparatus 
of the Liver, published in the Philosophical Transactions ; only that I believed the 
cells not to progress (“march”) outwards from the centre, but that the bile was 
transmitted from cell to cell in order throughout a series. What led me especially to 
doubt of the truth of this opinion, was simply that in the majority of livers I saw oil 
only, and not bile in the cells. If oil be regarded as the secretion of the hepatic cells 
instead of bile, the view of Mr. Bowman would receive very strong support, for oil 
does accumulate in many instances, especially in Sheep’s and in certain Human 
