Since Henle and Purkinje first described the cells which form the great mass of the liver, microscopists have maintained that these are what are termed “naked protoplasts”—that is, they possess, like the white blood corpuscle, no differentiated cell-walls. I may mention the names of Dr Lionel Beale, Ewald Hering (“Stricker's Histology,” section on the Liver), and Dr Klein (“Atlas of Histology”), who all agree in denying its existence. Indeed, the absence of this structure is emphatically insisted upon in most works on microscopical anatomy.

If a liver-cell be examined with a power of about 300 diameters, it is seen to be a granular mass, of a somewhat spherical shape, containing a very distinct nucleus and nucleolus. The granules are but the optical expression of a delicate reticulum or stroma, which may be seen as such on using a higher power.