In the centre of the processes a few nuclei may be observed, but they are scarce, and stain only faintly; they have arisen from the cells of the rete Malpighii which have grown into the corium.  In fact, the active cells are passing their daughters into the middle of the process, and these pass through similar stages as those derived from the ensheathing epidermis.  In other words, the daughter cells of the constituents of the rete Malpighii which have grown into the corium pass through a degeneration precisely similar to that undergone by cells shed at desquamation, or those which eventually give rise by their agglutination to a hair.

This is the real origin of the horny laminae, and the thickness of these is increased merely by an increase in the area covered by the cells of the rete Malpighii—­i.e., by the development of secondary laminar ridges.  If a section from a foal at term be examined, the processes will be found far advanced into the corium, and, occupying the axis of each process, will be seen a horny plate, continuous with the horn of the wall.  No line of demarcation can be observed between the horn so formed and the intertubular material of the wall.  They merge into and blend with each other, with no indication of their different origins.  The cells that have invaded the corium have thus not lost their horn-forming function.  There has merely been an increase in the area for horn-producing cells.  The horny processes are continuous with the hoof proper at the point where the epithelial ingrowth first commenced to invade the corium, and fuses here with the horn derived from the cells of the rete Malpighii which have not grown inwards, and which are found between the processes in the intact foot.  From this it is clear that some considerable portion of the horn of the wall is derived from the cells of the rete Malpighii covering the corium of the foot.  It becomes even more clear when we remember the prompt appearance of horn in cases where a portion, or the whole, of the wall has been removed by operation or by accident (see reported cases in Chapter VII.).

The activity of the cells of the rete Malpighii of the corium covering the remainder of the foot will be quite as necessary as the activity of the cells of the coronary papillae which form the horn tubes themselves.  ‘For,’ in Professor Mettam’s own words, ’I am inclined to believe that much of the “white line” which is found uniting the wall of the hoof to the sole has been derived from the horn formed from the rete of the foot corium.  This origin will explain the absence of pigment from this thin uniting “line,” as it does from the horn lining the interior of the wall.  The cells of the rete are free of colouring matter.’

[Illustration:  FIG. 30.—­SECTION THROUGH HOOF AND SOFT TISSUES OF A FOAL AT TERM.  The horn of the wall is shown, and the horn-core (’horny laminae’) of the epithelial ingrowth.  The latter has advanced far into the corium, and is now provided with abundant secondary laminar ridges (Mettam).]