OF THE CELLvS OF HEPATIC PARENCHYMA. 
‘279 
According to the explanations under the other head, the masses of hepatic cells 
of which the parenehyma of the liver is composed are pervaded by intercellular 
passages leading directly into ducts, which from having a proper coat are recog- 
nisable as such. The hepatic cells, analogous to the endogenous cells of other glands, 
which form, like an epithelium, the immediate wall of the intercellular passages, 
become, in the recognisable ducts, superseded by a proper epithelium. 
10. Of these hypothetical explanations, it is to be observed, that those under the 
first head are founded on the assumption that the hepatic cells correspond to glan- 
dular vesicles, — for it is glandular vesicles and not endogenous cells which open into 
ducts either separately or after having coalesced to form tubules, — an assumption 
already opposed to analogy and altogether unsupported by any fact, but now com- 
pletely set aside by the facts and arguments which have been addueed in this paper. 
Whilst the explanations under the first head must thus be rejected, that under the 
second head, which assumes the hepatic cells to correspond to endogenous cells, and 
which was first suggested by Professor Henle of Heidelberg as the most probable, 
has by the same facts and arguments been proved to be correct in principle. 
