37G 
DR. LIONEL BEALE ON THE 
communicating with spaces between the hepatic cells into which the bile escapes, 
and is received by the most minute ducts. 
Handfield Jones and Kolliker describe the hepatic cells as forming a solid net- 
work composed of columns of cells, not bounded by any basement membrane, but 
lying between the meshes of the capillary network. 
Handfield Jones thinks the ducts terminate by blind extremities, whieh lie amongst 
the cells at the peripheral parts of the lobule. The small cells lining these ducts are 
considered by him as the chief agents concerned in the secretion of bile, and he 
looks upon the function of the hepatic cells as totally distinct from this. Busk and 
Huxley and Dr. Carpenter concur in this view, which places the liver in the same 
category as the suprarenal capsules, follicles of Peyer, spleen, &c. Koluker offers 
the supposition that the finest ducts impinge upon the columns of the network of 
hepatic cells, and makes the following remarks with reference to this point : — 
“ Often as I have sought for a direct communication of the finest canals with the 
hepatic networks, I have not directly observed it ; v/hich is indeed by no means 
surprising, if we consider the softness of the parts with which we have to do ; but 
unfortunately the result is a hiatus in the minute anatomy of the parts, which can 
hardly be made good by hypotheses*.” 
The conflicting opinions of observers appear to have been based upon inference 
and hypothesis rather than upon direct observation, and are embodied in diagram- 
matic figures ; some authors, agreeing with Kiernan, regard the liver as arranged 
upon the type of true glands, while the latest authorities have endeavoured to 
establish the view that this important organ is more nearly related to the ductless 
glands. 
My own observations have been made upon the livers of several different animals, 
and I have tried very numerous methods of preparation, some with considerable 
success. The results of the examination of injected specimens precisely accord with 
the observations made some months before upon uninjected preparations. 
The points which I hope to establish are as follows : — 
1. That the hepatic cells lie within an exceedingly delicate tubular network of 
basement membrane. 
2. That the smallest biliary ducts-f' are directly continuous with this network. 
3. That in favourable specimens, injection forced in from the duct, will pass into 
every part of the tubular network, even quite to the centre of the lobule, and that 
the capillary network can be injected in the same preparation. 
In carrying out my investigations upon the anatomy of the ducts, I have been led 
* An excellent abstract of the views upon the structure of the liver, up to the year 1852, will be found in 
Professor Kolliker’s ‘ Mikroskopische Anatomic.’ 
t In the following pages the word “ duct” is used to denote the tubes which carry olF the secretion, in con- 
tradistinction to the secretory tubes or “ cell- containing network” in which the secretion is formed. 
