THE FOOT 657 



vascular foot ; from its appearance, the fleshy ; from its character, 

 the velvety foot ; whilst from one of its functions it has been 

 termed the horn-secreting foot. 



The Vascular Wall or Laminal Tissue (Figs. 223, 4 ; 224, 6) is com- 

 posed of corium arranged in the form of a number of leaves lying side by 

 side, which run from the coronet downwards and forwards to the edge 

 of the wall. In number there are about 500 or 600 ; they invest the 

 entire wall of the pedal bone and the greater part of the lateral 

 cartilages, their extreme vascularity giving the appearance of a 

 thin layer of muscle. The leaves at the toe are longer than those at 



Fig. 222. — The Sweat-Glands of the Plantar Cushion (Franck). 



d, d, The glands, the corkscrew-like ducts of which (e, e, b) pass out through the 

 horn of the foot-pad, opening at/, /on to the surface of the foot at the cleft. 

 At c is the deep-seated portion of the horn of the foot-pad, where it grows 

 from the papillae of the corium of the plantar cushion ; g, g are horn fibres seen 

 in longitudinal section. 



the heel, where they are very short and turned in under the foot, 

 running forwards beneath it to form the part known as the sensitive 

 bars (Fig. 221, 7). 



If a single leaf, say at the toe, be removed and examined, it is 

 found to commence immediately under the thick cornice-like 

 structure known as the coronary or wall-secreting body, and to 

 be most firmly attached to the pedal bone ; in fact, so intimate is 

 the attachment that it is almost impossible to remove this tissue 

 cleanly from the bone. The leaves under the coronet are very short 

 from front to rear (depth), but as they proceed from the coronet 

 towards the ground they rapidly increase in depth, and attain 

 their full depth about J inch or so from their origin. The edge of 

 the leaf is not regular, but denticulated, and at its inferior part 



42 



