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IX. On the Structure and Development of the Liver. By C. H. Jones, M.D. 
Communicated hy Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart., F.R.S. 
Received June 16, — Read June 17, 1847. 
In venturing to offer a second communication to the Royal Society respecting the 
structure of the liver, I feel the rather anxious to do so, that I may have an oppor- 
tunity of correcting an error and supplying a deficiency which existed in my previous 
paper. In the following observations I purpose to present some account of the 
structure of the liver examined in the ascending series of animals, and also to de- 
scribe the several stages of its evolution in the embryo ; in this way I trust I may 
be able to exhibit the characteristic structural features of the organ as it exists in Man 
and the higher animals, and also to determine the true place which ought to be 
assigned to it in a classification of the various glandular organs occurring in the 
same. 
I am not aware that any detailed account of the structure of the liver has been 
recently published, except that by M. Natalis Guillot, which however, so far as I 
comprehend it, does not seem to be one that can be readily accepted ; the idea that 
the minute biliary ducts and lymphatics originate together in a common net-work, 
is d priori improbable, and entirely opposed to conclusive evidence (as I think), 
which will be subsequently adduced. A very interesting paper on the structure and 
function of the liver has also appeared in the 4th volume of the Guy’s Hospital 
Reports, from the pen of Dr. Williams ; to his labours I shall several times have 
occasion to refer, but it will be seen that I differ from him in several particulars, 
especially respecting the importance of the basement or limitary membrane. 
Commencing with the Bryozoon polype as the lowest individual in the animal 
series in which distinct traces of a liver have been discovered, we find that (according 
to Dr. Farre and Professor Owen) there are a number of follicles filled with a rich 
brown secretion, which open into a distinct compartment of the stomach ; these 
doubtless constitute an hepatic organ. 
In the Asterias, where though the several systems of organs are sketched out, they 
yet remain without any appearance of concentration and high individual develop- 
ment, there exists considerable doubt as to the part of the digestive system to which 
the function of a liver is to be attributed ; the most usual opinion seems to regard 
the ramified appendage found at the dorsal aspect of the stomach as having this 
character. Dr. Williams, however, considers it more probable that the layer of cells,' 
lining the dilated cseca of the prolongations of the digestive sac into the rays, discharges 
