FIG. 31.—PERPENDICULAR SECTION OF HORN OF WALL.
In a previous page we have described the manner of growth of the horn tubules, and noted the direction they took in the wall; also, we have noticed the existence between them of an intertubular horn or cement.
Those who wish to give this subject further study will find an excellent series of articles by Fleming in the Veterinarian for 1871. We shall content ourselves here with introducing one or two diagrams and photo-micrographs, and dealing with the histology very briefly.
Under the microscope the longitudinal striation of the wall is found to be due to the direction taken by the horn tubules.
Fig. 31 is a magnified perpendicular section of the wall. In it the parallel dark striæ are the horn tubules in longitudinal section. The lighter striæ represent the intertubular material.
Fig. 32 gives us the wall in horizontal section. To the left of this picture we find the horn tubules cut across, and standing out as so many concentrically ringed circles. In the centre of the figure are seen the horny laminæ, with their laminellæ, and the sensitive laminæ. The right portion of the figure pictures the corium.
FIG. 32.—HORIZONTAL SECTION OF HORN OF WALL.
Fig. 33 is, again, a horizontal section, cut this time at the junction of the wall with the sole. To the left are seen, again, the horn tubules of the wall, and to the centre the horny laminæ. In this position, however, the structures interdigitating with the horny laminæ are not sensitive, but are themselves horny. As the diagram shows, they contain regularly arranged horn tubules cut across obliquely. It is this horn which forms the 'white line.' To the extreme right of the figure are seen the horn tubules of the sole.