278 
MR. T. WHARTON JONES ON THE SIGNIFICATION 
examination, — 1st, detached columnar epithelium ; 2nd, free round nuclei ; and 3rd, 
a quantity of minute granules, free or in amorphous flakes. Of these objects, the 
columnar epithelium is the same as that of the wall of the duct itself, and has evi- 
dently been detached from it ; the free nuclei are identical with those of the endo- 
genous corpuscles of the glandular vesicles, and are evidently, together with the 
minute granules, the fragments of those corpuscles in process of resolution into 
pancreatic juice. 
6. To apply what we have now learned of the nature of the objects contained in 
matter taken from the pancreatic duct to the elucidation of our subject. It is 
scarcely necessary, in the first place, to say that the fragments of columnar epithe- 
lium found in the matter from the hepatic ducts have been, like the columnar epi- 
thelium contained in the matter from the pancreatic duct, detached from the walls 
of the ducts themselves. Of the free nuclei, the round ones=^ are identical with those 
of the cells of hepatic parenchyma, and are, together with the granulous substance, 
globules of oil and fragments of cell-walls, evidently such as might be supposed to be 
the remains of broken-up hepatic cells and their contents in process of resolution into 
bile, — as evidently as the free nuclei and granulous substance found in the matter of 
the pancreatic duct are the debris of the endogenous corpuscles of the vesicles of the 
pancreas broken up and in process of resolution into pancreatic juice. The fact of 
the existence of hepatic cells in the smaller hepatic ducts above enunciated, suffi- 
ciently accounts for the presence of their broken-up remains in the ducts. 
7 . From what has now been stated, I believe 1 am warranted in concluding that 
the cells of hepatic parenchyma are the analogues of the endogenous cells or 
corpuscles of the glandular vesicles of the pancreas and other racemose glands, or of 
the glandular tubules of tubular glands, and are, like them, being constantly repro- 
duced, cast off, received into the radicles of the ducts, broken up and resolved into 
the secreted matter. 
8. But besides establishing this physiological proposition, the fact of the exist- 
ence of hepatic cells in the smaller ducts of the liver, throws light on the anatomical 
relation of the hepatic cells to the radicles of the hepatic ducts, — a point the most 
essential in the minute anatomy of the liver, but one which has not as yet been 
decisively determined by direct anatomical demonstration, though different hypothe- 
tical explanations of it have been offered. 
9. The different hypothetical explanations referred to may be reduced to two 
heads. 
According to the explanations under the one head, the hepatic cells themselves 
stand in such a relation to the radicles of the biliary ducts that they pour their con- 
tents into them, either by opening separately like follicles at all points, or, after 
coalescing to form tubules, by these tubules opening into coecal radicles of the 
biliary ducts, 
* The oval nuclei, mentioned in § 1, resemble those of the columnar epithelium cells, and are probably 
derived from broken-up cells of that structure. 
